Handling charges dispute worsens
The acrimonious dispute over terminal handling charges (THC) heightened yesterday after it was claimed shipping lines plying the intra-Asia trades were recovering up to double their costs for calling at ports in the Philippines.
Asian shippers, mostly exporters, have long asked for disclosure of the cost elements which comprise the THC and have dismissed carrier claims the levy is purely a cost-recovery fee.
They now appear to have their smoking gun.
A study by the Philippine Shippers Bureau (PSB) claimed overlapping charges by carriers from the Intra-Asia Discussion Agreement (Iada) which control the bulk of regional trade set THC levels 52 per cent higher than cost.
'It is clear there is double charging,' PSB director Pedro Vincente Mendoza told Cargonews Asia, a Hong Kong-based trade publication.
In the Philippines, Iada sets the THC at 4,080 pesos (HK$580) per teu (20-foot equivalent unit).
It sets the fee at $1,800 for the same unit in Hong Kong.
The revelation comes shortly after the sudden departure of Iada chairman Kenichi Kuroya last month.
Mr Kuroya, a strong proponent of greater transparency in the THC, stepped down as the head of Iada just days before he was to reveal the components of the levy at a tripartite meeting of the South Korean, Japanese and Hong Kong shippers' councils.
Official Iada sources insist Mr Kuroya's term at the helm had expired, but shippers strongly believe he was blocked from attending the meeting by elements within Iada opposed to exposing the THC's cost components.
The PSB report said: 'The Philippine THC [were] found to be excessive since they include cost components which are irrelevant and which are already charged and paid by the shippers separately.'
