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July 12, 2022
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- The International Transport Forum calls for greater
control over containerized shipping and proposes to charge
higher taxes on the sector
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- It calls for a rethinking of the competition rules and
complains that shipping companies in the EU only contribute
for 4% at the cost of financing and maintaining
maritime infrastructure
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 The predictability of transport delivery times
containerized maritime is now a thing of the past. The
highlights the report "Performance of maritime logitics"
developed by the International Transport Forum (ITF), the think tank
on transport policies under the auspices of the Organisation for
Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) while being
politically autonomous with respect to this organization. The
document recalls that from 2020 this shipping sector and
the activity of ports in the container segment are more
times rose to the forefront of the chronicles since their
Congestion has had an impact on all chains of
sourcing, with companies having been hit by increases
of transport prices and delays in shipments.-
- The report first examines the recent development of freight rates.
maritime, specifying that from the beginning of 2020 the tariffs of
Maritime transport of containers has increased considerably, with the
noli spots that at the end of 2021 (week 47) were on average
already about six times higher than two years earlier and the
contracted freight rates 2.9 times higher. Especially
the analysis finds that spot freight rates have begun to record a
fairly gradual growth from June 2020 and therefore more
rapid in the months of November and December of the same year, while between
May and September 2021 there was a fluctuation that
reflects the growth in tariffs for different directions
of traffic. The 2.9-fold increase in contract rates between
January 2020 and January 2022 mentioned by ITF is referred to
to the index processed by Container Trade Statistics (CTS) which includes
both contracted freight and spot freight.
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- ITF points out that, however, these numbers underestimate
the increase in the costs of containerised maritime transport given that
loaders have to cope with a series of additional burdens
and higher commissions for demurrage. Also in the same
period the reliability of departure times and dates
of vessels decreased from 65% to 34%, which means -
notes the report - that two out of three ships arrive in port with
at least one day later than the scheduled time. In addition
unplanned cancellations of stopovers at
harbours.
- Focusing on the dysfunctions of the maritime supply chain and
the consequent impact on the different regional world markets,
the ITF report notes that shipping companies have
used hold capacity management strategies for
move this capacity mainly to routes
transpacifics in order to meet the growing demand for
consumption in the United States. Transfer that - according to the analysis - is
was facilitated by public policies, with the authorities
of regulation which have enabled maritime carriers to
make use of the cooperation agreements in place between them to manage
jointly the capacity of the fleets. The document recalls
that this option has become the main element of
coordination between containerised shipping companies in
follow-up to the regulatory measures introduced by the European Union and
from the United States in the early 2000s in order to ban the
joint fixing of maritime transport tariffs
in the context of liner conferences. According to ITF, expectations
according to which these measures would have had the consequence of
stimulate competition at the level of freight and reduce
however, these tariffs have been disrupted by the increase in
of their value at record levels as of 2020.
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- The ITF report includes some exhortations to mitigate the
negative effects of maritime supply chain dysfunctions on
markets, starting from increasing the monitoring of
conditions of competition in the maritime transport sector of
containers, also with the strengthening of the role of agencies
specialized and through the increase of cooperation between the various
competition authorities, given that their actions
they are interdependent.
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- According to the ITF, it would also be necessary to reconsider the
competition agreements for the maritime transport sector of
line in order to ensure a sufficiently wide choice of
reliable operators and services. Review that - for
the non-governmental organization - could lead to a
limitation of joint management of hold capacity
by maritime carriers with the aim of promoting greater
competition between shipping companies.
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- The FTT also calls for a focus on standards for
fair competition in door-to-door container transport, given
that the continuous process of vertical integration put in place
from the containerized maritime transport industry poses new
challenges to competition regulation. The report notes
that shipping companies, in fact, can use the
exemptions granted to them in many jurisdictions by the Law on
competition and can exploit their influence as carriers for
gain competitive advantages in markets where they now compete
directly with freight forwarders, with service providers
ports or with logistics operators that do not have such
exemptions from competition law. The ITF therefore highlights the
the need for regulators to
ensure sufficient competition in port markets and
land logistics in which carriers have also entered
containerized seafarers.
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- The International Transport Forum also calls on governments to pose
measures in place to increase the transparency of transport freight rates
maritime containerized and other shipping costs of
container. The report specifies that a measure could consist of
in the creation of lists of accepted surpluses and requirements on
how to calculate them. In addition, according to the ITF, the burden of proof for
justify such price supplements should be borne by the
maritime carrier rather than shippers, which instead
currently they often have to prove that these costs are free of
justification. In particular, the costs of demurrage and detention
charged to shippers to facilitate transport flows in
ports should be made more effective by ensuring that
are related to the costs incurred and should be charged to the
shippers or shippers only if these are the subjects
able to remedy the situation and not where others
subjects are responsible for the prolonged stops of the containers in the
terminal.
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- Among the other suggestions put forward by the ITF there is also
to charge more for infrastructure costs
public seafarers on the users of these infrastructures. The
document notes that currently in the European Union the companies of
navigation contribute only 4% to the cost of financing
and infrastructure maintenance in ports and canals
interoceanic and notes that, in general, maritime carriers
they pay only a fraction of these costs which is also lower
to that paid by all other modes of transport.
According to the ITF, to achieve greater spending efficiency
public governments should recover a greater share of the
infrastructure costs through the imposition of tariffs and charges.
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