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Maersk tackles THC transparency

17 years ago

The polarisation of the two sides was well illustrated by the furore earlier this year when Maersk, one of the carriers most willing to embrace charging transparency in the post-conference era, adjusted its THC system in Asia.

Port Strategy: Maersk's moves to liberalise THCs this year met with criticism from shippers

In China this saw THCs rise substantially on certain routes, a move made independently of any conference arrangement. Maersk says it was simply increasing charges for ports to reflect the increased charges levied by terminals over a number of years.

THCs had only risen to the industry average, and the restructure was also part of the carrier’s strategy of making its entire global charging structure more transparent.

Shipper bodies cried foul, firstly that shipping costs had risen, and secondly that THC costs were still being separated out from freight rates.

“This was simply about claiming back income because of falling freight rates,” says Sunny Ho, director of the Hong Kong Shippers’ Council.

However, by standardising THCs at certain ports across each trade, Maersk had in fact done what many shipper interests had called for by simplifying the fee and making that information widely available.

“THC charges were at different levels,” says Mikael Jensen, Maersk Group Vice President. “Now they have been made more uniform on all trades originating from China. “We hadn’t increased them before, perhaps because of our membership of conferences, but terminal handling costs have been going up for years and THCs weren’t reflecting this.”