A Study on Standard Types of Free Carrier (FCA) on Incoterms for Seaborne Container Goods Transportation: Korean Trade Companies’ Perspective

The ICC (International Chamber of Commerce) has attempted to replace the current FOB (Free On Board) terms with FCA (Free Carrier) since Incoterms 1990. As the delivery of goods in se almoaborne container cargos is completed inland and not on board the vessel, problems can occur regarding the point at which the risk and delivery pass from a seller to a buyer. Therefore, the Incoterms 2010 recommend FCA instead of FOB for container cargos because the containers are delivered regularly in one place of inland or the container terminal in a port. However, all trade parties use FOB instead of FCA in practice. Hence, it is a pertinent time to analyze FCA, which is the appropriate term to replace FOB, as the latter is currently popular in global export transactions even though it is not a right term. Further, the need exists to create some countermeasures to reduce disputes and misconduct, as there could be multiple delivery locations in the export country under FCA. Therefore, this study suggests standard FCA types by considering delivery points such as FCA Factory, FCA Station, FCA ICD (Inland Container Depot), and FCA CT (Container Terminal) in order to make trade parties use FCA terms easier.