The glory days for shipping lines, whose increased rates and charges have been the subject of intense scrutiny, may be over.
The International Federation of Freight Forwarders’ sea working group has been actively campaigning against increased rates and charges from shipping lines for some time, says SA Association of Freight Forwarders’ consultant Mike Walwyn.
“We recently had a virtual meeting with the commissioner of the Federal Maritime Commission (FMC), Rebecca Dye, and it looks as if something is finally happening,” he said.
Freight News understands that the Biden administration plans to issue a sweeping executive order calling on the FMC and the Surface Transportation Board to act against what the administration says are actions that make it onerously expensive for American companies to transport goods.
The crackdown is believed to be part of a more wide-ranging drive to root out anti-competitive behaviour in all sectors of the US economy.
The White House says consolidation of the shipping industry, with its small number of freight carriers, has cost American importers and exporters, allowing operators to extract higher rates and charge fees like those for demurrage.
And the same applies to importers and exporters the world over.
The order will call on maritime regulators to crack down on such fees, and to take all other steps to protect American shippers from high fees.
And while a recent report found that demurrage charges across global ports had doubled over the past year, logistics operators told Freight News that demurrage was just a tip of the iceberg.
An article on the topic, https://tinyurl.com/vza8pcs, published earlier this week elicited strong response: “I’ve got fees from SACD Cape Town depot, and the exams tariff from Cosco for comparison,” a reader told Freight News. SACD is well aware that the shipping lines are marking up their tariff, because they regularly have importers coming to them to complain - but obviously what the line charges for SACD's services is totally outside their control (eg. SACD container lift R436/lift for 40ft; Cosco - R3 000.
“Who can put pressure on the shipping lines? Because they are all doing it, and the struggling South African economy can ill afford it.”
“I believe a sound case should allow the Competition Commission to seriously consider these billing structures and the rules/regulations surrounding them,” another reader commented.
“Shipping lines are holding the entire worldwide economy to ransom at the moment.”
Well, it seems there’s been a decisive move in the right direction.
