ESC and CLECAT accuse containerised shipping carriers of jeopardising the recovery of the European economy

In particular, ESC and CLECAT have urged companies to change their operational and commercial practices, ensuring the reliability of the schedules and the quality of the service according to the contractual terms, in order to ensure the regular flow of goods and containers, since - they have specified the two associations -- they still continue to persist the imbalance of container flow and capacity reduction line transport in place since the outbreak of the pandemic of Covid-19. Problems - esc and CLECAT pointed out - that have had a significant impact on the activity of shippers and loaders who have done everything possible to ensure fluidity supply chains that are essential in this crisis phase.

'The lack of maritime transport capacity and the lack of containers, partly caused by the blocking of hundreds of thousands of containers within logistics chains the ESC President, Denis Choumert, explained that they cannot on their own explain the inadequacy of line transport. Customers are rightly irritated by the fact that line have taken advantage of the lack of capacity to increase revenues much more than their costs."

Choumert denounced that, "in times of crisis, the continued unreliability of the service combined with the profits records of shipping companies is clear symptom of a seriously disrupted market and shows that companies have disproportionate increases on spot noli, imposing heavy the contractual tariffs.'

"Further frustration, " added the President of the CLECAT, Willem van der Schalk -- comes from the fact that we continue to be forced to work according to an emergency schedule to adapt to the companies' very short-term notices related to the availability of equipment, slots, containers and countless further nicknames. The costs for the shipping sector - pointed out van der Schalk - are from the re-re-reporting of shipments to the sometimes to the loss of the customer and this simply because companies do not make the service available.'

ESC and CLECAT then invited shipping companies 'to put an end to the current situation and to return to a situation in which contractual agreements are respected, given the which - the two associations pointed out - further delays in the supply chain could compromise the speed of recovery of the European economy after the pandemic.'

ESC and CLECAT also pointed out that the navigation also benefit from special legal protection guaranteed by the block exemption for maritime consortia of line, whose validity last spring was extended for a further four years ( of the 24th March 2020), extension - specified the two associations - which was granted to the dismay of the customers of the services liner shipping. "The European Commission- ESC and CLECAT - has repeatedly granted and extended this exemption from the normal competition rules as it believes that customers benefit from efficiency gains obtained through the coordinated management of capacity by members of a consortium. However, they reiterated the two associations - at present this is not the case and these privileges are now disproportionate in that they allow companies to use tools to manipulate the market.'

Noting that the US Federal Maritime Commission has increased its control over the activities of the companies containerised navigation ( of the 30th November 2020), ESC and CLECAT expressed concerns about the about the European Commission's failure to respond to the crisis and expressed the conviction that a "new normality" should require the monitoring of liner maritime transport activities and a new form of Regulation.