BIFA Slams FEFC’s Shipping Surcharges

The British International Freight Association (BIFA) has reacted angrily to the news that the Far Eastern Freight Conference (FEFC) will impose a congestion charge of US$145 per TEU on westbound cargo from Asia to the UK next month.

BIFA director general Peter Quantrill said: “This industry anachronism is making the most of its current exemptions from aspects of competition law, hitting UK importers in the pocket at this, their busiest time, and doing nothing to remove the issues that the FEFC claims to want to resolve.”

He said this charge is nothing more than a tax on success, a cartel-type throwback to a bygone age, and an attempt to wring yet more money out of members pockets while it still has the chance, ahead of abolition next autumn.

“According to the FEFC’s own figures, cargo carried into the UK by FEFC lines has increased by more than 15% year-on-year after eight months of 2007, averaging 485 TEU per day. Based on those figures, the surcharge will add costs of just over US$70,300 per day, or US$25.7 million per annum – that someone is going to have to pay,” said Qantrill.

Quantrill dismissed FEFC’s claims that the congestion charge was required to recover costs incurred by lines from chronic congestion at the UK’s major terminals and inland terminals.

He said the FEFC has imposed this charge without offering any solution to the problem. “They claim their members have been forced to bypass UK ports and feed cargo to and from the UK, in some cases being forced to divert to non-scheduled ports. This is a problem all over Europe, yet the FEFC has singled out the UK. Why? “
Quantrill pointed out that the congestion is nothing like it has been in previous years, when FEFC felt there was no need to impose surcharges.

“If nothing else, next year’s ending of the conferences’ cartel-like arrangements holds out the best prospect in decades of a real shift in the balance of commercial power from carrier to customer,” concluded Quantriill.

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