Shipping lines slam new vessel charge

Alan Peat
SHIPPING LINES and agents are furious about a new port charge recently introduced by the National Ports Authority (NPA) which they condemn for generating huge amounts of cash which aren't justified.
The vessel traffic service (VTS) charge is designed, according to the NPA tariff book, "in the interest of safe navigation, pollution and conservancy of the ports".
But say the lines, apart from a new computerised ship tracking system introduced to monitor vessel movements up-and-down the coast, there's nothing here that shouldn't already be covered by other charges already levied on shipowners.
Port dues, berthing dues, pilotage charges, tug charges, light dues, SA Maritime Safety Association (Samsa) dues, for example, cover most of the VTS services, FTW was told.
"And that new ship tracking system certainly doesn't justify the multi-million sum that this VTS will raise every year," said one critic.
Dave Rennie, c.e. of Unicorn Lines and chairman of the Container Liner Operators Forum (Clof) described it as a "ridiculous idea".
And one, he added, "that
is totally against the
government's overarching policy of reducing the
cost of trade. A policy that has always been publicly supported by the NPA."
What the lines had been expecting when the NPA first raised the subject of this new VTS, according to Mike Brown, operations director of Polaris Shipping, was a once-off fee levied as a vessel enters a port.
"But there are huge amounts of money being generated," he said. "Far more than the revenue needed to cover the services the VTS is set up to manage."
To illustrate his point, Brown did a calculation on the May figures for the port of Richards Bay.
"There were 119 vessels calling that month, with a total gross tonnage something in excess of 6-million tons. That's an average size of 50 500 tons. Taking their average stay as five days in port, that works out at over R1.68-million a month Ð taking into account the basic and the in-port charges covered by the NPA formula."
Extrapolating that figure Brown calculated that the
1 400 ships a year which use Richards Bay would generate just under R20-m for the port annually.
The Association of Ships Agents and Brokers of SA (Asabosa) and Association of Shipping Lines (ASL) have sent letters of complaint to NPA CEO Siybonga Gama.