Demurrage in Mining: The Contract Covers the Cost; Traceability Prevents the Problem

A shipment of copper cathodes or concentrate that gets stuck in port for two weeks. A freight contract with “paper” protection. A final cost amounting to tens of thousands of dollars.

Cases like this are common in the mining industry, and the discussion tends to focus (understandably) on the contract: Was the demurrage cap a fixed amount or a formula that gets diluted amid congestion? Did the force majeure clause explicitly mention port congestion? Did the forwarder have a stake in the matter, or was it only the shipper?

Those are good questions. But they only solve half the problem.

The Scale of the Problem

Mining logistics drives a significant market, although its exact size varies depending on what is included in the definition: market estimates place the pure transportation segment between US$29,000 and US$76,000 million by 2030, while broader definitions (which include storage and value-added services) put it at US$140,000 million in 2024, projected to reach US$210,000 million by 2033. In either scenario, an inefficiency of just 1% in the supply chain represents hundreds of millions of dollars a year in avoidable costs, and demurrage is one of the most visible and least managed components of that inefficiency.

Global demurrage and detention charges, moreover, show no signs of easing: they rose between 8% and 12% year-over-year in 2025, driven by port congestion and contracts that were not designed to handle the current volatility in the transportation sector. Global demurrage and detention charges for container operations rose by nearly 8% year-over-year in 2025, driven by port congestion and contracts that were poorly aligned with operations.

Why free time doesn't offer the same protection as it used to

The standard free time in port (the period before demurrage begins to accrue) is typically only 5 to 7 days. This timeframe is designed for normal operating conditions, in which the cargo arrives with all its documentation in order and the port already knows what to expect.

The problem is that those conditions are no longer the norm. When shipment documentation is incomplete, customs simply refuses to process the declaration: the cargo is held until the issue is corrected, and administrative fines may be imposed for noncompliance. This isn’t intentional, but the practical effect is the same: the cargo doesn’t move while the paperwork is being resolved, and that time also counts against the free time allowance.

Given the current global volatility in transportation, any breakdown in the information chain—a late dispatch order, a manifest that arrives after the truck has left, a port that learns of the shipment only after the cargo is already on the yard, or a situation where the DUS (Single Outbound Document) hasn’t been generated—can easily eat up that buffer of days. And when the free time runs out while a purely administrative issue is being resolved, demurrage kicks in without any bad luck or negligence on anyone’s part: it is, quite simply, the cost of an information chain that arrived later than the physical cargo.

A cost that goes beyond demurrage

Demurrage is the most visible and easiest cost to calculate. But it is not necessarily the most expensive. If the cargo is held up long enough, the shipping window for the chartered vessel may be missed, which—in addition to the cost of unused freight—causes delivery to be delayed beyond the date agreed upon with the buyer.

A late delivery may constitute a breach of the sales contract. And in a market where premiums over the reference price are periodically renegotiated between buyer and seller, a track record of reliable delivery is one of the factors buyers consider during those negotiations. A purely administrative issue, if not resolved in a timely manner, can end up affecting not only the shipment in question but also the commercial terms of future shipments.

Two causes, two different solutions

The legal-contractual issue—ambiguous cap clauses, generic force majeure provisions, and forwarders with no incentive to act quickly on the ground—can be resolved through better contract drafting and negotiation. This is not our area of expertise, and we do not claim it to be.

Operational and documentation issues—such as weigh-in not validated on time, shipping documents issued late, product quality without clear certification upon arrival, and the destination learning of the shipment only after the truck or train is already on the yard—are indeed a traceability problem. And that is where we have been working alongside the mining industry for more than 13 years.

What does “having the load ready” mean in practice?

In our experience managing the traceability of mining products from the plant to their destination, the difference between a smooth shipment and one that ends in a dispute almost always comes down to the same thing: Did the information arrive before the product?

• Weighing is validated digitally at the plant; it is not later reconstructed using spreadsheets.
• The shipping guide is generated as part of an integrated process and is automatically transmitted to the port digitally, without the need to draft emails or re-enter data.
• The physical and chemical characteristics of the product are recorded and made available prior to arrival through digital integration.
• The destination (intermediate yard, port, customer) receives the shipment information in real time, not after the truck or train has already arrived.

None of these points replaces a good cap clause. But they eliminate many of the reasons why that clause ends up being triggered.

The Right Starting Point

If your exposure to demurrage is due to weak contract clauses, you need a good trade finance attorney. If the cargo is never actually ready (weighed, certified, documented, reported, and visible) when the carrier or the port needs it, that’s an operational traceability issue. And we can definitely help you resolve that.

In fact, this is exactly the challenge that led us to create Antara CT — Control Tower: a platform that centralizes the complete logistics traceability of a mining operation—including both critical inputs and finished products—online in a single view. Not a dashboard that displays data from other systems, but a control tower fed by information validated at its source so that, when the port, the customer, or the carrier inquires about the status of a shipment, the answer is already ready before the question becomes a problem.

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Sources

• Alkagesta (2026). Rising Demurrage Risk Amid Route Disruptions and Port Congestion.
• FreightAmigo (2025). Demurrage Explained: Understanding Costs, Causes, and Prevention.
• Grand View Research (2024). Mining Logistics Market Size & Share Report, 2024–2030.
• Verified Market Reports (2025). Mining Logistics Market Size, Trends, and Forecast through 2033.

Written by Patricio Rojas Ábalos, Co-Founder & CEO of Antara.