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Asian shipowners have noted with great interest the establishment of the
Asian Shippers' Council (ASC) with great interest.
The formation of the Asian Shipper Council, representing the interests of
importers and exporters in the region is expected to emerge as a
countervailing body to the increasing strength of shipowners, who especially
in the current market condition, appear to have an upper hand by pushing
increases in freight rates despite protests by shippers.
The Asian Shipowners Forum, representing shipowners associations in Asia,
which met in Singapore the weekend, nevertheless welcomed the regional
shippers body that could wield considerable influence.
ASF said recognising that the specific commercial issues should be discussed
between relevant shippers' bodies and authorised carrier agreements, the
delegates agreed that it would seek appropriate ways to establish desirable
and constructive relations between shippers and carriers in Asia through
sincere and amicable dialogue.
On the prevailing strong demand in the transpacific trade, which ASF expects
to sustain over the next few years, strong concerns were expected about
increasing cost factors mainly due to the lack of sufficient infrastructure
such as, heavy port congestion especially on the US West Coast, increasing
charges of harbours , railways and truckers.
The owners also felt feeders, shortage of containers because of high steel
prices, soaring bunker prices, the upsurge in charter rates and rising new
building prices could impact on the otherwise buoyant market.
The shipowners said the unprecedented increasing operating costs posed a
massive challenge to carriers' ability to provide the high quality and
stable services.
Member lines were urged to make their utmost efforts to articulate the
significance and impacts of these problems to the public and government
agencies that in particular the development of new transportation
infrastructure would be urgently required for the smooth flow of the global
supply chain. |
