Many companies frequently hedge their risks to offset the uncertainties of fluctuating prices. Changes in the future price of energy, crops, and currencies are all business risks that can be subject to contractual hedges that smooth future swings in prices and help to provide predictability in pricing and business costs. Recently, some shippers and carriers have started to use derivative contracts and index based freight rates when shipping containerized goods internationally to increase their rate certainty and hedge risks. Recognizing that “it’s important that market participants have flexibility in structuring rates and hedging strategies,’ last Spring the Chairman of the Federal Maritime Commission announced the formation of an internal Container Freight Index and Derivatives Working Group. The working group is charged with gathering information and advising the Commission on issues arising from the use of container freight rate indices in service contracts and index-based derivative transactions. This September, the Commission voted to initiated a rule making proceeding which will address the use of freight indices in service contracts, an action that underlines the main message to be drawn from the Commission’s formation of this working group that the use of such hedging devices in the ocean shipping industry is likely to increase in the coming years. The rule making has now been published and is open for comments.