European Shippers Council News

The European Shippers’ Council (ESC) disapproves of the mechanism of surcharges that shipping liners launch to cover the higher rate of lower sulphur fuel. Shippers call for a dialogue with container liners to find the best mechanism to share the costs.A new bunker adjustment factor launched by Maersk aims at covering additional costs that will arise from the upcoming global sulphur regulations. Carriers impose it unilaterally without any negotiation with shippers and ignore a market approach to the global problem.MSC and CMA CGM have recently announced plans that follow the same direction. This does not set an ideal cooperation scenario.The ESC has made a clear request to shipping liners to sit together and discuss all freight costs and to come to a mutual agreement"ESC is monitoring…

The service provided by container shipping lines has deteriorated since 2016 and is now seen by exporters, importers and freight forwarders as more problematic, according to the second annual shipper satisfaction survey of Drewry and the European Shippers’ Council (ESC). The joint ESC and Drewry survey reveals that the 400 shippers and forwarders who took part rated the service of container shipping lines with a score of 3.2 on average on a scale of 1 (very dissatisfied) to 5 (very satisfied). There were different levels of satisfaction for 16 different carrier activities reviewed in the survey. Satisfaction with documentation accuracy scored 3.4…

The service provided by container shipping lines is rated as poor to average and has deteriorated in the past year, according to a survey of exporters, importers and freight forwarders conducted jointly by Drewry and the European Shippers’ Council (ESC). The ESC and Drewry contacted several hundred shippers and forwarders from all over the world in March 2017 and asked them how satisfied they were with 16 price and non-price related attributes of the services provided by ocean carriers. The survey also looked into areas most in need of improvement and how quality varies by type of carrier. On a scale of 1 (very dissatisfied) to 5 (very satisfied), customers on average did not rate carriers higher than 3.3 for any of the 16 service attributes, the survey showed (see chart).

It also has called for greater data monitoring by national competition authorities following recent announcements regarding shipping line collaborations which, it claims, are bringing “the container liner market one step closer to total convergence”. The increased collaboration between the French container ship operator CMA CGM and Germany’s Hamburg Süd will bring the container liner market one step closer to total convergence, the European Shippers’ Council warns. The Brussels-based organization wants a focus on “operational and juridical links between ship owners” and the “correlation between price modification and capacity modification”.

The American Association of Exporters and Importers (AAEI) and the European Shippers’ Council (ESC) call upon all parties involved to reach an agreement as soon as possible to overcome congestion in ports across the United States West Coast which seems to be at an all-time high. According to ESC press release, hundreds of long shore workers are suspending vessel loading and unloading operations at U.S. ports, beginning on January 13th, because employers said they wanted to clear cargo from congested yards. The ports claim the International Longshore and Warehouse Union is creating work slowdowns at the ports by withholding skilled crane operators to gain leverage in contract talks.

Top container shipping companies A.P. Moller-Maersk and MSC Mediterranean Shipping Co cleared the last regulatory hurdle to launch a vessel-sharing pact, but companies that use their services voiced concerns, particularly in China. The tie-up won U.S. approval on Wednesday after four out of five commissioners at the Federal Maritime Commission (FMC) voted not to seek further information from the two shippers about the impact of the alliance on exporters and ports, one of the commissioners told Reuters. Maersk said the approval had been the last it needed from regulators around the world, including in China and the European Union, and that the alliance would begin operations in January.

The International Maritime Organization is discussing a draft amendment that will make mandatory a certified process for the verification of the weight of every loaded container. "The safety of those involved in the supply chain is of paramount importance to these associations; a focus on best practice which results in improved safety in the chain should reflect equally positively on the level of performance and productivity in the chain. However, the proposed container weight verification requirement is in the view of the associations ineffective.

According to the European Shippers Council (ESC) extra regulation of container weights will not solve the safety issues in container transport, is superfluous and hardly feasible. ESC’s concern is that the discussion is becoming entirely focused on a relatively small risk factor instead of taking a more comprehensive look at the whole process of shipping containers. The focus instead should be upon looking at other important matters such as  procedures for lashing, ship maintenance and stowage. The European shippers also expressed their doubts that IMO is the right institution for regulating container safety issues in itself. ESC’s representative…

Shippers seeking to choose ‘green’ or ‘sustainable’ transport are being put off by the confusion of initiatives and promises offered by logistics and transport companies, says  Andrew Traill, Shippers' Voice Managing Partner. “The lack of a common programme results in a proliferation of calculation methodologies, carbon calculators, sustainability initiatives and so on,” he explains. “This usually leads to increased effort and cost for companies to assess carbon emissions of transportation…

Shipper groups say the introduction of green fuel taxes will not reduce emissions. They claim that shipping lines will not switch to more environmentally-friendly fuels or more efficient ships, they will simply add yet another surcharge to the rates they charge their customers. Most of the talk from the shipping sector and governmental organizations involves the establishment of a levy or tax on fuel that is proportionate to the level of emissions from each ship. The way to reduce such charges would be to score well on the recently-approved Energy Efficiency Design Index for ships, as agreed by the International Maritime Organization. Shippers, including the Global Shippers Forum, the British Shippers’ Council and the European Shippers’ Council (ESC) say this strategy will not work.

Shipowners, charterers, traders, energy companies and insurers will be among those interested to learn the impact of recent events on the war and force major exceptions in their contracts and to identify relevant insurance policies. There are currently many numbers of spats going on between shipping interests and their insurers over the need to increase war rates to destinations - and there are a lot of them - which underwriters might consider to be vulnerable. And the European Shippers Council has asked the EC to investigate war risk premiums levied by marine underwriters. Watson Farley & Williams is reportedly holding a seminar in London October 9 to discuss these issues.

Marks & Spencer joined other multinationals from North America, Asia and Europe which have found in Drewry’s 150 sets of port region-to-port region container freight rates a valuable source of pricing benchmarks to help their transport procurement decisions. Due to the launch of the global container freight rate benchmarks and associated regional and global freight rate indices, Drewry is making the unique, industry-first freight rate data available on-line to subscribers at www.containerbenchmarks.com. This interactive on-line database provides current and historical market-based container freight rate benchmarks for multiple trade routes and port pairs. The rate benchmarks are based on averages of rates paid by shippers to freight forwarders.

Cargo shippers from Europe, Asia and the U.S. called for the repeal of international maritime legislation protecting container shipping price fixing groups from normal anti-trust rules. A meeting of shippers' organizations from the three continents has backed proposals to reform the 125 year old liner shipping conference system, the European Shippers' Council (ESC) said. European shipowners are moving toward supporting some liberalization but on a sector-by-sector basis, the U.K. Chamber of Shipping said. But containershipping lines would be unlikely to support full deregulation of their sector, shipping analysts said.