CLECAT denunciation that the containerized companies of navigation use the crisis in order to erode market shares to the detriment of the shippers



The incident happened in the Suez Canal, with the silting up of portacontainer the Ever Given of the cargo ability of 20.000 teu that it has caused to the closing of the water way Egyptian for a week, has evidenced problems and criticality provoked in all supply chain world-wide from the increasing the introduction on the market of portacontenitori of large-capacity. It has emphasized the CLECAT, the European association of the shipment companies, you transport, customs logistics and services, remembering that already in the 2015 International Transport Forum it had drawn the attention on these dangers(on 29 May 2015) and emphasizing moreover the risks connected to the assumed dominant position from the containerized companies of navigation.

CLECAT has remembered not to never have approved of the escalation of the dimension of the ships, as it considers that the economies of scale introduced from the Large Hooligan Container Vessel (ULCV) fall back exclusively on the containerized companies of navigation, while the other categories of the supply chain instead are forced to support the costs determined from the introduction on the market of these mega carrier let alone problems that they cause on the terrestrial part of the supply chain exercising remarkable pressures on the connections with the home markets and creating peaks of ability in the harbour terminals.

The CLECAT has found that these potential criticalities have been manifested fully with the change of happened scene during the last few years, mutation which pivoted in particular on the explosion of the pandemic of Covid-19. The association has explained that before the sanitary crisis the marine hires were relatively low as a result of the race to the construction of more and more large ships with the consequent creation of sovracapacità, accompanied from a continuous erosion of the quality of the service. CLECAT has remembered moreover that before the pandemic some marine carriers previewed that the race to naval gigantism same turning to the term and that the field would have been concentrated mainly on the quality of the service. CLECAT has stated that today, with the sanitary crisis still in course and with a value of the marine hires who have touched levels never reached previously, the quality of the marine service is instead come down to the level more low than always and not there is not even some sign of improvement. Last January - it has denounced the association - the reliability of the programming of the departures of the ships is come down beneath of 35%. Moreover - it has observed the CLECAT - since the market is dominated alone three shipowning alliances, in whose aimed at the navigation companies they share the their mega ships practically without to be confronted with a competition of independent operators, is from wondering if in future us they could be margins for an improvement.

CLECAT has recriminated that, if the navigation companies attribute the cause of this situation to the pandemic, the reasons of the current congestion of the harbour terminals and the deficiency of abilities to containerized transport reside more rather in the fact that "in recent months the carrier have been extremely selective in the choice of the ability, bringing back in empty Asia the container to the aim to benefit of higher hires for the goods in import, that - has emphasized the CLECAT - has caused dysfunctions and has prevented to the European exporter to provision the markets. Consequently, us they have been inefficiencies in the punctuality of the ships that are creating problems, operating difficulties and delays in the additional connections with hinterland let alone costs".

According to the CLECAT, "the root cause of this come down unreliability of the schedule to the historical minimums it is of the ULCV and their impact on the infrastructures to earth that for various time have reached saturation". The association has evidenced that, "obviously, any improvement of these infrastructures must be paid with public money".

"From some years - the analysis of the CLECAT continues - we assist to the chain reaction of the smaller ships that flows on other traffics and of the ULCV that more create the peaks elevated on the traffics East-West, with congestions in the terminals and the surrounding areas caused by the ristrettezza of the useful windows to the delivery of the goods in the presence of overloaded infrastructures. The pandemic - it has found the association - has been only the triggering cause".

The association, specifying that the block of the Suez Canal is alone getting worse the current criticalities of the supply chain adding from two to three weeks to the time to the East-West complete spin of the ships, reducing therefore in fact the ability to hold of the dedicated fleet at the market Asia-Europe, has newly denounced sourly the navigation companies that would make use of this situation of criticality in order to erode market shares to the detriment of the shippers. "Right in the middle this crisis - it has specified the CLECAT referring to a communication of last Friday of the branch Belgian of shipowning group MSC - the MSC Belgium has announced that it will not allow with the empty transport merchant haulage to withdraw container in the hinterland". "For a long time - it has evidenced the association - the carrier they are looking for ways in order to approach the loaders directly; but now they are taking advantage of the deficiency of container aggravated from the crisis of Suez in order to attract put up flows of goods. They make the same thing with the demurrages and the costs for the extraordinary waits, that more they are elevated for the merchant haulage because of the delays and of the times of attended to the terminals. With this behavior - it has observed the CLECAT - we find once again that integrated the vertically companies of navigation benefit of their dominant position discriminating the merchant haulage, what that in its turn the parity of conditions and a healthy competitive market places to risk".

Concluding own analysis the CLECAT, finding that mega the ships by now are in service and us will remain, has exhorted the decisive politicians let alone the same companies of navigation and the others you leave interested to take in consideration this problematicità in sight of the future definition of the next generation of ships: "".