However, Australian forwarder and shipper representatives, the Freight & Trade Alliance (FTA) and Australian Peak Shippers Association (APSA), described the measures as "failing to adequately provide contingency services".
John Park, head of business operations at FTA/APSA, said its members ought to be due compensation from the carrier and its subsidiary, Australia National Line, which operates some 14 services to Australia, according to the eeSea liner database.
"FTA/APSA has reached out again to senior CMA CGM management to seek advice as to when we can expect full service to be re-instated, implementation of workable contingency arrangements and acceptance that extra costs incurred, as a result of the systems outages, will be reimbursed by CMA CGM," he noted.
He said feedback from FTA/APSA members highlighted continuing issues, including "in many cases customer service [and/or] sales representatives are not responding to phone calls"; members' calls to CMA CGM's national 1800 number goes to a recorded message saying 'message bank is full, please call again later'; and that "email communication to the generic email supplied seeking information/electronic delivery orders (EDOs) etc, is slow".
Given CMA CGM's ownership of ANL and its importance in the country's container trades, the IT outage has heaped more misery on shippers and forwarders trying to clear a substantial cargo backlog created by the recent industrial action in Sydney's container terminals, he said.
"We have seen temporary resolution of stevedore/MUA issues, however we now face the inability to move containers due to the slow release of EDOs/invoices," Mr Park added.