Crippling shipping line fees continue despite the Maritime Union of Australia (MUA) returning to full operations at all Port Botany container stevedoring operations.
Major international shipping lines are maintaining a ‘Port Botany Congestion Surcharge’ ranging from USD 285 to 350 per twenty foot equivalent unit (TEU) despite resumption of full operations and statements this week from all three stevedore executives suggesting successful finalisation of enterprise agreements could be achieved in coming weeks.
Shipping Australia Ltd (SAL) tempered this news with a commentary yesterday stating that ocean shipping and the landside container supply chain into and out of Sydney both remain extremely disrupted despite the ceasefire between the union and stevedores. The commentary clarified that while no visible queue of vessels exist, significant costs are incurred by shipping lines anchored elsewhere around Australia or slow steaming to Port Botany.
In response, Freight & Trade Alliance (FTA) and the Australian Peak Shippers Association (APSA) have questioned whether shipping lines are potentially ‘double-dipping’ gaining penalty revenue from both their supplier (stevedore) and customer (exporter, importer or freight forwarder).
FTA / APSA have also sought detail from SAL on how many vessels are affected with the assumption that many shipping lines would have adjusted their scheduling over the last few weeks as reflected by the high number of blank sailings, vessels by-passing Sydney and those no longer taking bookings to Sydney.
The lack of transparency poses many questions and frustrations, turning the spotlight away from the core industrial relations dispute to one of opportunistic shipping line practices that appear to be primarily focussed on recovering costs to extend record profits reported during the pandemic and global economic downturn.
While acknowledging that the industrial relation matters clearly need immediate and permanent resolution, FTA / APSA is continuing to lead advocacy for competition law reform and increased regulation to address unfair charging regimes including the explosion of shipping line surcharges, stevedore-imposed Infrastructure Surcharges and empty container park transport booking fees.
State and Federal Governments need to support Australian commerce to take advantage of the opportunities created by free trade agreements and economies recovering from COVID-19 restrictions.
These opportunities cannot be fully realised while the costs of trade are prohibitive.
