TNPA knocks R312 off tariff for import TEUs

Industry has welcomed proposed tariff adjustments by Transnet National Ports Authority (TNPA) that will see a significant reduction in container charges. Addressing the Exporters’ Club Western Cape (ECWC) recently, Ronald Machumi, TNPA financial manager in Cape Town, shed some light on the port authority’s new approach that will see container charges decreasing in the foreseeable future as revenues are increased across other platforms. “We believe our new pricing strategy addresses the shortcomings of the current tariff practices to a large extent, but is also committed to reducing the cost of doing business in South Africa,” said Machumi. “In the recently finalised pricing strategy there are certain commodities that will see a major increase in their tariffs, while others like containers and automobiles will go down.” The TNPA, which has presented its strategy to the SA Ports Regulator, is asking for a tariff adjustment of 5.4% for 2013/2014 which will be applicable across all published tariffs except certain designated cargo type tariffs. Machumi said if approved this would see a ramp-up of cargo dues for high-volume commodities such as coal and iron-ore exports and petroleum imports, but a gradual reduction of cargo dues for containers. At the same time however revenues from port rental will increase by at least 15% year over year, to reduce the overall revenues from cargo dues. Cargo owners currently bear 61% of the burden of port charges through cargo dues, while the share arising from shipping lines and terminal operators is 39%. The TNPA is proposing a split where the terminal operators contribute 33%, cargo owners 46% and shipping lines 21%. In accordance with the new proposed tariffs, Machumi said there would be a price decrease for full export and import containers. He said the proposed tariff for 2013/14 for full twentyfoot export containers was R614 and R1 228 for fortyfoot containers. The proposed tariff for twenty-foot import containers is R1866 in comparison to the current R2 178 and R3 731 for forty-foot containers currently at R4355. CAPTION Ronald Machumi ... ‘New pricing strategy addresses the shortcomings of the current tariff practices.’