IFCBAA Update - Sydney Port Congestion Surcharges Schedule (NNF 2020/174)

Further to previous IFCBAA bulletins on the issues at Port Botany, Sydney stevedore terminals.

IFCBAA would like to update members on actions concerning the Port Congestion Surcharges (PCS) being imposed by a number of shipping lines in Sydney.

IFCBAA has compiled a schedule of Port Congestion Surcharges and related information announced by the shipping lines, as attached. We will update the schedule as further announcements are received. 


Message from IFCBAA CEO, Paul Damkjaer

As Australia struggles through a recession and COVID-19 pandemic, it seems counterintuitive that a number of shipping lines have determined that the state of services through Port Botany, Sydney, requires the imposition of an additional ‘congestion charge’ for a variety of reasons, including the disruption resulting from legally protected industrial action by stevedore employees at Port Botany.

Numerous shipping lines have imposed a port congestion surcharge and some have announced a general rate increase on certain freight starting on 1 October 2010.

The increases through the ‘congestion charge’ have been levied differently by the shipping companies, even though they are in the same operating environment. Which does beg the question as to how such additional charges cannot affect all parties and how they are precisely calculated?

The action by the shipping lines is not illegal, but it is unacceptable.

At the same time, there have been increased problems with access to empty container parks where most are full or overflowing with stockpiled empty containers.

These only add to the pressures on parties in the industry, already burdened by the uncontrolled and opaque increases in stevedore landside infrastructure access fees and the significant costs and compromises to business occasioned by the COVID-19 pandemic.

The International Forwarders and Customs Brokers Association of Australia (IFCBAA) has been proactive in raising these issues with governments, their agencies and the private sector, including initiating contact on these issues with the ACCC and federal and state governments. We are considering legal or other remedies which may be available and IFCBAA is working with other members of industry so these charges may be reviewed or challenged.

From IFCBAA’s perspective, we would like to see federal and state governments and agencies take action to involve themselves with these new congestion charges as well as the stevedore access charges which are so costly to industry using those services.

Similarly, the government could require those increasing charges to notify and justify the proposed charge increases. Further, given the national significance of the issues around the charges of the lines and actions of others in the supply chain, we could even go as far as the US and establish a new agency such as the Federal Maritime Commission and grant it jurisdiction to review charges by the lines and others in the supply chain.

There does seem to be a need for additional transparency on these charges and how they can be imposed on parties who believed that they had already negotiated their rates and were working their margins around such rates. While many in industry need to pay these additional charges, it is consumers who ultimately bear the cost of additional charges expressly imposed because of these actions.

Shipping lines are now diverting from Sydney discharge port to either Brisbane or Melbourne which is causing up to 3 weeks delay in receiving goods not to mention the cost impact of these delays not only in repositioning cargo to Sydney the cost delay in getting commodities to store. Of these commodities they include essential cargo such as, personal protective equipment, medical supplies, food and machinery.

This is the last thing the Australian economy needs at a time like this, when we are supposed to be “in this together”.

IFCBAA urges all parties involved in the industrial action at Port Botany to resolve their differences and return the port to full operating capacity.

To read the, Port Congestion Surcharges - Sydney - as at 17 September 2020 - Distribution

Paul Damkjaer
Chief Executive Officer