Hong Kong's maritime freight forwarders are following the lead of shipping lines by passing on the additional costs of implementing the United States Customs Service's Container Security Initiative.
The forwarders said there were substantial changes to their administrative systems after US Customs mandated last month that all goods be registered 24 hours before the vessel departed.
The bigger forwarders, such as those which qualify for non-vessel operating common carrier (NVOCC) status in the US, had shelled out for International Carrier Bonds, which allow them to submit manifests and bills of lading direct through the US Customs' Automated Manifest System (AMS).
'The charges being passed on by our members which are NVOCCs are to cover the costs of bonds and some additional administrative work,' a Hongkong Association of Freight Forwarding and Logistics (Haffa) spokesman said. The lines are charging a data-entry surcharge of US$25 per bill of lading and US$40 per amendment, but forwarders' levies are up to US$60.
Forwarding giant Panalpina last week began an 'AMS processing fee' of US$40 to US$60 on routes linked to the US.
Markus Heyer, head of business processes and quality, said the new security measures had increased the cost of processing ocean freight shipments.
'We anticipate an increased workload for staff in our exports departments and additional resources required to deal with containers that are refused entry to the US and initially held back at port of departure,' he said. Panalpina had yet to decide to levy an amendment fee.