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Commodity jam fee still in place though commodity jam over
The commodity deadlock has been settled for two weeks, but some shipping agents are still collecting the so-called ‘commodity jam fee’. Import-export companies have decided to boycott the firms continuing to collect the fee.
Wanhai Lines Ltd & Inlaco Saigon is collecting a ‘commodity jam fee’ of $50 for every 20-foot container and $100 for every 40-foot container. The representative of the shipping agent said that the fee has been set by the parent company in Taiwan, and that the HCM City agent is just collecting the fee according to its instructions.
The representative said that Wanhai Lines has been collecting the fee as of July 23 for a certain time to deal with the problems caused by the commodity deadlock, and that this is not a permanent fee. However, the fee has not been removed yet, even though the commodity jam has been settled.
Wanhai and some other shipping firms have been collecting the fee since the serious deadlock of Cat Lai, Tan Cang and VICT ports pushed the shipping firms’ expenses up. Some shipping firms complained that they had to wait 2-3 days to clear commodities. They said that in the peak time of deadlock, transit ships from Vietnam to Singapore and Thailand had to sit idle, causing the loss of $100,000 a day.
However, the problems at ports have improved in the past two weeks. At Vict port, the handing capacity is now 50% of the maximum capacity: 6,000 20-feet containers. The handling capacity is 12,800 containers at Cat Lai, and 29,000 containers at Tan Cang ports. However, as shipping agents have not received any order from parent companies, they still have to collect fees.
The director of a garment export company in HCM City said that it is unreasonable to collect a commodity jam fee when there is no commodity jam. He said that he has asked his staffs to refuse to use the services of shipping firms still collecting such fees.
But some shipping agents have discontinued the fee.
According to Nguyen Thanh Phong, Director of NYK, the shipping firm planned to collect an additional fee in order to offset losses caused by the commodity jam. However, the jam was settled before the decision was made, therefore, NYK did not collect the fee.
A representative of Maersk Sealand said that its clients don’t have to pay a commodity jam fee anymore. Other firms, including Ocean Way, Gemadept Corporation, Agency Department and AOM Logistics Co, Ltd have also announced the same thing.
The volume of exports and imports has decreased by 30-40% over April and May; therefore, additional commodity jams will not occur in the immediate time, at least. Meanwhile, ports are trying to install more machines in order to move freight more quickly.
The HCM City People’s Committee has recently issued a document, proposing the Ministry of Transport work with shipping agents on removing the commodity jam fee.
There are 60 foreign shipping firms operational in Vietnam, which make up 90% of the container transport market in HCM City.
VNN
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