Demurrage, Detention and Port Storage in Cambodia

Three charges catch importers in the same week, and they are routinely confused with one another: demurrage, detention and port storage. They are different charges, billed by different parties, on different clocks — and all three are avoidable with planning rather than luck.

The three charges

Where the money goes

For a 40ft container, charges escalate from modest to painful quickly. A week of overstay rarely destroys a margin; three weeks of overstay, plus the cost of a delayed sale, can. The pattern to recognise is that the bill arrives weeks later, after the invoice has been settled and the goods sold — which is why importers underestimate it until they have paid it once.

The nine causes of avoidable charges

1. Documents incomplete on arrival — the most common cause by a wide margin.
2. Duty and VAT not funded — release needs payment, and payment needs cash available.
3. Broker appointed too late — the declaration cannot be lodged before the broker has the file.
4. HS classification disputed — a query adds days.
5. Import licence missing for a restricted product.
6. Truck not booked — the container is released but nothing moves it.
7. Consignee name mismatch between the bill of lading and the company registration.
8. Original documents delayed in the post — a telex release or a scanned set arranged in advance avoids this.
9. Nobody owns the timeline — responsibilities split between supplier, forwarder, broker and warehouse, and each assumes another is handling it.

The sequence that avoids all three

A pre-alert file sent a week ahead is the single highest-value habit in import operations. It converts a chain of dependencies into a checklist.

If you are already late

• Ask for a waiver in writing, early. Carriers and terminals sometimes extend free time for documented customs delays. Requests made after the fact are usually refused; requests made while the delay is happening sometimes succeed.
• Prioritise the container over the paperwork dispute. Get the box out and argue about the duty later, because the daily charge accrues regardless of who is right.
• De-stuff fast. Detention accrues on the container, not the cargo. Emptying it and returning the empty stops the meter even if the goods sit in your warehouse.
• Check the invoice line by line. Free-day calculations are sometimes wrong, and the correction is easier before payment.

Budgeting for it

Put a demurrage and detention allowance into your landed cost model — a small percentage of freight on every shipment. Most months you will not use it. The month you do, it stops being a crisis and becomes a line item, which is precisely what it should be.

You can model the freight side in the freight cost estimator, and the customs side in the import duty and VAT calculator.