DP WORLD CUSTOMER NOTICES
Freight & Trade Alliance (FTA) and the Australian Peak Shippers Association (APSA) note the announcements made by DP World Australia (DPWA) on Friday 27 March 2020 scheduling further adjustments to their Infrastructure Surcharge regime (now more appropriately referred to as "Access Charges").
A complete list of all stevedore Infrastructure Surcharges nationally is available HERE
While we appreciate that DPWA, like the rest of Australian commerce, is no doubt also feeling the financial strain of the current economic environment and any relief for exporters is welcome, putting an additional excessive cost burden on importers at this time is not the answer.
Commentary
REDUTCTION TO EXPORTERS
It is interesting to note that DPWA has followed Patricks' lead and for the first time, will implement a differentiated charging arrangement between imports and exports.
This is no doubt in response to our advocacy for Infrastructure Surcharge reform where we have highlighted the impacts, particularly affecting exporters with high volume / low value commodities.
The position of the APSA Committee of Management, representing many of Australia's largest exporters, remains unchanged.
Infrastructure Surcharges must be eliminated with stevedores to recover costs from their commercial client shipping lines. In turn, this would leave shipping lines to negotiate freight rates and Terminal Handling Charges with their commercial clients being exporters, importers and freight forwarders.
It is unacceptable that stevedores can simply adjust Infrastructure Surcharges on the transport sector without any level of engagement or negotiation.
INCREASE TO IMPORTERS
Import businesses will be bleeding over lock down restrictions to COVID-19 during the next 6 months. Some will not survive the financial hardship.
To offset the immediate impact, FTA / APSA are advocating to government for deferral of Duty, GST and Import Processing Charges until the crisis is resolved.
Relief for the import sector is essential otherwise we face serious concerns that we will have a significant backlog of containers held under customs control (taxes must be paid prior to release into home consumption). Further detail is outlined in our submission to the National Covid-19 Coordination Commission.
The DPWA changes will achieve a net revenue increase leaving importers to face another increase in May. The targeted sector and timing could not be worse.
Adoption of the "Patrick model" putting a greater impost on importers comes as no surprise. What has come as a surprise is that DPWA would implement this model at this extreme time when importers require relief for business continuity / survival.
FTA / APSA RESPONSE
At a time when all of industry needs to rally and offer support to each other, the total disregard to any level of engagement in terms of the most recent announcements is astounding.
In a desperate to attempt to recover the position, FTA / APSA reached out to DPWA executives over the week-end. A follow-up meeting has been scheduled with the DPWA Chief Executive Officer for the afternoon of Tuesday 31 March 2020.
FTA / APSA will keep members up to date with developments. |
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