1. Home
  2. Regulatory Report
  3. The National Agency for Waterway Transportation (ANTAQ) launched two Public Consultations concerning container demurrage charges and maritime freight surcharges. They seek to improve regulatory quality and assessment and transparency mechanisms.

The National Agency for Waterway Transportation (ANTAQ) launched two Public Consultations concerning container demurrage charges and maritime freight surcharges. They seek to improve regulatory quality and assessment and transparency mechanisms.


The National Agency for Waterway Transportation (ANTAQ) launched two Public Consultations:

(1) Public Consultation n. 3/2020 aims at surveying the public opinion on the development of a methodology to assess the potential abusive character of container demurrage charges, regulated by ANTAQ Normative Resolution n. 18/2017 (which regulates the rights and obligations of agents operating in ports).

The collection of contributions is part of ANTAQ’s 2020/2021 Regulatory Agenda, determined to assess abusiveness of demurrage charges.

(2) Public Consultation n. 4/2020 aims at collecting opinion on the improvement of transparency mechanisms regarding extra freight charges and surcharges of maritime transportation. ANTAQ perceives that basic freight estimation has increased in complexity over the last years, noting regional differences in the composition of basic freight and the applicability of surcharges such as Terminal Handling Charge (THC), Bunker Adjustment Factor (BAF) and Currency Adjustment Factor (CAF).

As a part of ANTAQ’s 2020/2021 Regulatory Agenda, the collection of contributions seeks to investigate potential regulatory problems, by identifying which surcharges are mostly applied to users and carriers and collecting means to improve transparency mechanisms.

Participation in the two public consultations launched by ANTAQ are summarized as follows:

  • Public Consultation n. 3/2020 on demurrage charges. Contributions can be submitted until October 16 through this digital form (in Portuguese), where additional information can also be found. Annexes to the contribution can be sent to this e-mail address.
  • Public Consultation n. 4/2020 on maritime freight surcharges. Contributions can be submitted until October 29 through this digital form (in Portuguese), where additional information can also be found. Annexes to the contribution can be sent to this e-mail address.