Legal counsel sought over surcharge
Edcon has sought legal counsel on the surcharge imposed by the shipping lines on the importer. It is their strong contention that the surcharge is a unilateral departure from the terms of carriage contained in the relevant bill of lading and accordingly may be construed as a repudiation of the terms thereof. Any thoughts or comments on this would be welcome.
Martin Deall.
‘Let’s sue!’
I agree strongly that the surcharge is a hostile, unilateral move by shipping lines and reeks of horizontal collusion amongst ship-owners and operators. The daily cost of a major sea-going vessel (5000TEU) is approximately $16000 per day. If ships are running at 80% of capacity (discharging and taking on cargo at SA ports, for argument sake say 30% DBN & 20% CPT only) it means most lines are earning an extra windfall income of $200K per DBN & CPT voyage which in my book means they have 12.5 days to play with.
This is daylight robbery! Let’s sue them.
Pieter du Toit
‘CT can’t rest
on its laurels’
Fantastic to see that congestion at the Cape Town terminal is an historic event, that is until next year the same time. The seasonal fruit exports will continue to place pressure on the Cape Town terminal’s capacity unless major efforts are made in the off season to address the various capacity problems.
Are the NPA/SAPO as usual now going to sit on their bums and relax now the pressure is off,
Graeme Gill
‘Reefer rebuttal’
Reefer cargo is only 16% of our total annual throughput. So, everyone is entitled to their views.
Yacoob Hartley,
SA Port Operations.
