Brazil's waterway regulator ANTAQ has opened a formal review of container demurrage rules, giving shipping lines, cargo interests and other industry participants until October 20 to submit evidence on one of the country's most contentious liner charging issues.

The public call for evidence covers demurrage under Resolution 62/2021 and rests on a preliminary regulatory impact assessment. It forms part of ANTAQ's 2025-2028 regulatory programme. The agency will also hold a webinar on September 29 as it weighs whether the existing framework needs amending.

The review does not change the charging regime yet. What it opens is the evidence-gathering phase that could underpin revisions to Resolution 62/2021 once submissions and regulatory analysis are complete.

A sharper liability test

The process follows a significant hardening of ANTAQ's interpretation of demurrage liability last year. In a 2025 ruling, the regulator held that demurrage should apply where excess use of a container stems from the cargo user's choice, fault or commercial risk — but not where the delay results from an act, omission or logistics failure attributable to the carrier, the designated terminal or the empty-container depot.

That ruling carried a practical consequence for equipment returns. Under the interpretation, the demurrage clock should be suspended from the first proven unsuccessful attempt to return an empty box, and it stays suspended until the carrier provides an effective means of receiving it. The decision also pushed the wider demurrage issue onto ANTAQ's regulatory agenda for deeper examination — the exercise now underway.

Commercial stakes

For carriers calling at Brazilian ports, the review threatens a tighter, more codified demurrage regime. If Resolution 62/2021 is revised along the lines of the 2025 ruling, carriers could face suspended charging clocks whenever terminal congestion, depot closures or their own operational failures block empty container returns — shifting dwell-time risk back onto liner operators and their designated facilities.

For shippers and forwarders, the opposite holds. The 2025 interpretation effectively gives cargo interests a documented defence against demurrage bills triggered by failures outside their control, provided they can evidence the unsuccessful return attempt. NVOCCs and importers with cargo moving through congested Brazilian terminals have the strongest case for engaging in the consultation before the October 20 deadline.

The September 29 webinar offers the first public signal of how ANTAQ frames the questions — and which parts of Resolution 62/2021 it considers most exposed to change.

A widening interventionist streak

The demurrage review fits a broader pattern. ANTAQ has been taking a more interventionist approach to liner charges in Brazil. In August, the regulator imposed tighter disclosure and reporting requirements around low-water surcharges levied by carriers serving Amazon trades.

That move targeted a niche but commercially sensitive trade, where seasonal river drafts give carriers grounds for surcharges that cargo interests often struggle to verify. The new disclosure rules aim to make those charges transparent.

Taken together, the low-water surcharge requirements and the demurrage review signal that ANTAQ intends to police the full spectrum of ancillary liner charges — from Amazon river trades to container dwell time at the country's main gateways.

What comes next

The immediate milestone is October 20, when submissions close. ANTAQ will then run its regulatory analysis of the evidence before deciding whether to amend Resolution 62/2021. No timeline for a final decision has been set.

For now, the demurrage rules stand as written. But with the regulator already on record suspending the charging clock for carrier-attributable delays, and with a formal review now open, the trajectory points toward tighter constraints on how carriers levy demurrage in Brazilian trades.