Victoria International Container Terminal Limited (VICT) has become the first Australian stevedore to crack the $100 mark for Infrastructure Surcharges and have conveniently cleared the path for others to continue the pattern of spiralling increases in terminal access charges - a consolidated list of national stevedore Infrastructure Surcharges is available HERE
Effective 1 January 2020, an Infrastructure Surcharge of $121.80 (excl GST) will apply to all export and import containers handled by VICT at Webb Dock, Port of Melbourne - official notice available HERE
The international trade sector (and other state regulators) wait with interest to see if and when the Victorian government will reveal the findings of their Port Pricing and Access Review.
It has been in excess of 3 weeks since Freight & Trade Alliance (FTA), the Australian Peak Shippers Association (APSA) and the Container Transport Alliance Australia (CTAA) [the Alliance] wrote to the Hon. Melissa Horne - Victorian Minister for Ports and Freight - correspondence available HERE
The Alliance has again followed up with the Minister and departmental representatives this afternoon following the release of the VICT notice, stressing that while this charging regime serves to provide stevedores with a healthy bottom line profit, it has significantly increased the commercial strain on logistics service providers who must carry the cost of the charges in the first instance and ultimately pass costs onto exporters and importers.
Low margin commodity exporters are particularly hardest hit by these unfettered and unregulated price increases at a time also when drought and other supply chain pressures are impacting export growth generally.
At a time when traders, logistics providers and the agriculture sector need it most, we need the Minister to stand up as a true leader. |
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