Demurrage and storage charges
The cost importers in Jordan pay while treating it as fate — when most of it is days that need not have been counted.
Two charges, not one
When an importer says "I paid storage", he is usually talking about two different costs issued by two different parties:
- Storage — a charge for goods sitting in the yard or the customs warehouse, paid to the yard operator.
- Container detention — paid to the shipping line for keeping its container outside the port beyond the free period.
What matters is that both run at the same time and neither cancels the other. A container standing one extra day can produce two lines on two separate invoices. Which is why the final figure comes out larger than anyone who budgeted for a single charge expects.
When exactly they start
After the free period ends. And that period is not one number: it differs by customs point, cargo type, container type, and the arrangement made with the shipping line. So we do not print a figure on this page — we check the period that applies to your shipment from your bill of lading and shipping arrangement, and tell you the date the count begins.
The practical difference is large: whoever knows the start date plans release and transport around it. Whoever does not, discovers it on the invoice.
Why release is delayed in the first place
Storage is not a problem in itself — it is a result. The most frequent causes are the same ones that hold shipments:
- A missing or contradictory document — a certificate of origin that has not arrived, or an invoice description that differs from the packing list
- A regulatory approval that only started after the goods arrived, when it could have started before
- A dispute over the tariff heading needing a technical specification nobody asked the manufacturer for
- A valuation dispute needing a document that supports the invoice value
- A carrier not booked until release was issued, leaving cleared goods standing in the yard
Note that four of those five are dealt with before the shipment arrives, not after.
Does storage stop if the hold is not my fault?
No. The yard counts its days regardless of the reason. Which is why the fastest way to reduce storage is to deal with the cause of the hold as quickly as possible, not to argue about the storage while it accumulates.
What actually reduces the days
These are not promises but the working order we follow on every file:
- The file starts before arrival. We read the documents while the goods are still at sea and identify what is missing and what needs prior approval. The days saved here are the cheapest in the whole operation.
- Approvals start early. If your goods need a regulatory approval, the time it takes does not change — but its position does: before arrival or after.
- The carrier is booked against the expected release date, not after it. Because clearance and transport sit in the same file here, we do not wait for release to start looking for a truck.
- The goods leave the moment they are released. And if your own warehouse cannot take the whole consignment at once, storage with us is cheaper than the customs yard, and we release it to you in batches.
And about waivers
A storage waiver is not a decision we control and not something we promise; anyone promising you one is selling words. What we control is the number of days — and on most files that is the larger part of the final figure.
Questions we get asked
What is the difference between port storage and container detention?
When exactly does storage start?
My goods are held over a missing document — does storage stop?
Can I get storage waived?
Send us the documents — we'll tell you what's missing
We read the invoice, certificate of origin and bill of lading, and tell you what will stop your shipment before it arrives — not after it is sitting in the yard. No obligation.