'Should be linked
to productivity'
THE APRIL 1 imposition date of this year's Portnet tariff increases has come-and-gone - with little complaining noise from the shipping line community.
But this doesn't mean they're happy, according to Alan Rolfe, operations manager for MSC (Mediterranean Shipping Company) and chairman of the ASL (Association of Shipping Lines).
His attitude to the annual rates hike is that it is Portnet trying to kill the goose that laid the golden egg.
It's not that the 5%-6% average increase is excessive. Said Rolfe: It's not too bad a quantum level given the economic state at the moment.
But what annoys us is the Portnet feeling that this annual rise should just be automatic.
With Portnet productivity having gone down, not up, in the last year, the shipping lines feel that the justification for any tariff rise is a bit slim.
A private sector business would have real trouble in justifying an increase, unless they were also offering improved - or at least the same - levels of productivity, said Rolfe.
But the whole thing is being discussed at the moment between the lines and Portnet - and something positive might come from this on a cost/productivity basis, according to Rolfe.
However, he said, what is worrying us in the ASL is the large numbers of resignations and new appointments in Portnet's senior management (figures of up to nine staff changes have been rumoured).
This sort of big change, all at once, isn't good for any operation.
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