Freight News, Sea

ESC blames ‘unacceptable’ surcharges on new alliances

[ November 10, 2014   //   Chris ]

The European Shippers’ Council has described the latest round of congestion surcharges imposed by lines as “unacceptable”. ESC says it sees no reason to impose them and urges ship owners to minimize surcharges and bring all costs into a single negotiable freight rate wherever possible.

Over the last few weeks, congestion surcharges have been introduced in Oman, the Philippines, India, the US, Hong Kong and the Netherlands, among others.

ESC adds that, according to the shuipping operators this mechanism is necessary due to the new organization of the ship-owner in alliances, vessel sharing agreements, slot exchanges and other rationalisation. But these new forms of organization have been presented to competition authorities and others as improving service quality, not a means of increasing revenue by creating new surcharges.

The ESC urges ship owners to solve the problems rather to impose surcharges.

Tags: ESC