Granite Container Demurrage Charges: Who Really Pays, and Why Two Bills Arrive
Granite container demurrage charges are billed by the carrier, not by the port and not by your forwarder, and they are two separate charges: demurrage while the box sits in the yard, detention while the empty is still out. This guide covers the start date, who pays under FOB and CIF, why heavy stone loads get hit harder, and what to do first once the meter is running.
Who actually issues the granite container demurrage bill, and why are there two of them?
Granite container demurrage charges come from the shipping line or its agent, not from the port and not from your forwarder, who only passes the invoice along. Spoken Chinese folds two different charges into one word. Demurrage applies while the container is still sitting in the container yard after discharge, billed per day once free time runs out. Detention applies after you have hauled the box out and unloaded it, but the empty container has not gone back to the yard within the agreed period, also per day. Different start dates, different rates, and often different people at fault: one is a slow consignee, the other a slow trucker. On granite the two usually arrive back to back: you could not get the box out, and once you did, you could not get it back in time.
The box is stuck at the terminal. Which day does the clock start?
The start date is set by the carrier's destination tariff: usually the day of discharge, in some ports the day the box becomes available, and both versions are written in that tariff, so find the line first, because which one applies decides which stretch you can argue. Where the clock runs from discharge, your documents do not stop it — the box is discharged, the clock runs, whether or not you can move it. Where it runs from availability, the start is the day customs release and documents are both in hand. So track three dates: discharge, customs release, documents in hand. The gaps between them are what you put into a waiver claim, and only the part caused by port congestion, an inspection queue or the carrier's own delay. Free time is in the same tariff and differs by carrier, port and box size; check your own document, not a number you heard.
| Date to track | Who gives you that date | What to confirm before it expires |
|---|---|---|
| Discharge date (the start date in most tariffs) | Carrier or forwarder | Whether the vessel sailed late or changed ports — if this day moves, the billing start moves with it |
| Release date and documents in hand (the later of the two = the day the box becomes available) | Customs broker and shipper | Whether the endorsed bill of lading or telex release has arrived, and whether the release note is issued |
| Free-time expiry | Carrier (tariff, booking confirmation, bill of lading terms) | When the yard closes for empty returns, and which day a low-bed or tri-axle truck is booked |
Under FOB and CIF, who actually pays?
One line: whoever controls the container pays. Whoever can collect it and whoever can return the empty bears that stretch. At origin the empty travels from the yard to the factory and stays with the shipper until it is loaded, so any delay there is the shipper's. Under CIF or CFR the seller pays ocean freight to the destination port only; after arrival, collection, customs clearance and empty return are the buyer's work, and the carrier bills both charges to the consignee named on the bill of lading. Under DAP or DDP the seller delivers to site, so both destination charges land on the seller. The reverse also holds: if the delay is the shipper's own doing, with documents released late, wood packaging proof incomplete, or a missed sailing that left the box sitting at origin, the shipper should absorb it, and the buyer can claim back using the timeline as evidence.
Why does granite attract these charges more than other cargo?
Three reasons: weight, handling and paperwork. Weight first. Granite runs about 2.7 tonnes per cubic metre. Our Maple Red G562 30mm slabs at the 346 m² loading ceiling for a 20ft box come to roughly 28 tonnes of net stone (346 × 0.03 × 2.7 ≈ 28; net stone only, no crates or dunnage, and a ceiling rather than what every box actually carries). At that mass, ordinary chassis at many destination ports cannot legally haul it, so you wait for a low-bed or a tri-axle, dispatch slips by a day, and free time is eaten in that wait. Handling: a full box moves by crane, and terminal crane windows are fixed, so miss the slot and you wait for the next one. Paperwork: stone exports need a certificate of origin, proof of treatment for wood packaging, and the HS code that matches how far the stone has been processed. One missing sheet blocks release, and the box sits in the yard waiting for paper.
The meter is already running. What is step one?
Stop the bleeding first, argue about liability second. ① Get the box out, strip it, and return the empty to the yard the same day. This stops detention, which keeps adding up daily. ② In parallel, apply in writing to the carrier or forwarder for a waiver, attaching three pieces of evidence: the customs release timestamp, the port congestion or inspection queue notice, and your own chasing emails. ③ Ask for a line-by-line statement: start date, rate, days, container number. Check the start date against the date printed in the tariff, then check whether the days include time lost to slow release, an inspection queue or the carrier's own delay. Those stretches are arguable; the start date itself usually is not. ④ If you genuinely cannot collect it, have the customs broker or a destination warehouse arrange the stripping into storage rather than hiring your own truck, and return the empty. What keeps running then is the warehouse's daily and handling charges, not the two container charges. Ask how the warehouse bills before you commit.
What do we put in the contract and the emails so nobody argues later?
Three clauses you can copy. ① After the Incoterm, add one sentence naming who bears demurrage and detention at destination; the three letters FOB or CIF on their own settle nothing. ② Put document deadlines in the contract: which documents, how many working days after loading, from whom to whom. Verbal promises and chat messages do not survive a claim. ③ Add a no-fault clause: delay caused by port congestion or customs inspection, neither party's fault, is shared on the basis of documentary proof. What our factory controls sits at the front end: the full document pack handed over before loading, wood packaging treated to ISPM-15 with the proof kept, and a margin left under the weight ceiling. Do those three and the box is collectable when it lands.
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