Printer Friendly
Email a Friend
Time for Clarity
01 Jun 2007
Port tariff reform is not a subject that “rings everyone’s bell”, but it is an important one worth paying some attention to. Larger ports will tend to have the subject fairly high on their agenda; others in the middle range and lower are not always so diligent.
Some ports will visit the subject as a matter of necessity – every three or four years as per a predetermined schedule; others will do so in the light of a new requirement that compels them to do so. These latter parties are effectively reluctant visitors to what often appears to be the complicated and sometimes political subject of port tariffs, principally the charges imposed on ships calling in a specific port.
There are many reasons today, however, to take a proactive approach to port tariff reform: the right port tariffs are fundamental to effective revenue generation, to accommodate new trends in shipping and, importantly, to play a fruitful role in overall business development strategy.
Gone are the days when tariffs were set in isolation and port users had to basically take it or leave it. The reality today is that in order to consolidate and expand business, and be responsive to trends such as increasing ship size and a reduction in the number of annual vessel calls, then regular attention has to be paid to the area of port tariffs.
Equally, focusing on tariffs and affiliated costs particularly cargo handling charges allows a properly informed perspective on important issues that arise from time to time such as the growing debate in Asia on the level of container handling charges passed on by shipping lines.
Against this background, then, it is particularly interesting to note the emergence of a new study that looks at vessel costs, container handling charges and freight rates in conjunction with four South East Asian ports . Interestingly, one of the conclusions reached is that container handling charges are equivalent only to around 5% of the endto- end freight costs.
This begs the fundamental question is the fuss about container handling charges disproportionate to the influence of container handling charges overall? It certainly seems this is a dimension worth exploring and one we have heard little about to-date.
Another area where interesting new work is about to get underway is in the measurement of key aspects of terminal performance. Ten industry participants – including well known names such as Eurogate, HHLA, Hamburg Port Authority, Yantian Hutchison and Germanischer Lloyd – have decided to work together to develop what will become a Germanischer Lloyd Container Terminal Quality Indicator Standard .This is a laudable initiative,much needed to iron out diverse grey areas especially in the arena of benchmarking.
Hopefully, however, it will draw on experience todate in this field and notably the work of the Ship Messaging Development Group (SMDG), which has set up some standard rules to exchange data for the purpose of generating terminal performance reports. SMDG’s innovative work undoubtedly qualifies it to make a very positive contribution to this new initiative.
Carly Fields
