The shipping industry has been urged to respond quickly to proposed changes in the Untied States' maritime reform bill to deregulate shipping, which is likely to be introduced this month. According to a Singapore Business Times report, Chen Ming Hsu, commissioner of the US Federal Maritime Commission (FMC), told the Multimodal China '96 conference in Singapore that the terms of the new bill would not be set in concrete yet. 'All indications are that the Senate will hold public hearings on any new measure, perhaps as early as September, so that all affected parties can have a chance to be heard,' she said. The United States has been working on a bill, aimed at a major deregulation of ocean shipping rules, that is expected to overhaul its 1984 Shipping Act. This had led to concern among many foreign carriers, including Asian, who have planned massive increases in fleet capacity for major east-west routes.
