FIATA, the extra costs of the maritime supply chain strangle shippers and small and medium-sized enterprises their customers

Fiata pointed out that, in particular, in the last year the costs of de-stasis and detention applied by carriers maritime to cover the costs of the use of port areas and containers have increased by +104% and, in addition, currently the maritime supply chain is subject to continuous interruptions, aggravated by the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, with a reliability of the schedules of the departures of the ships that fell to an all-time low. Record freight rates - ha summarized the federation - in the face of a maritime service untrustworthy.

Noting that the new US administration led by Joe Biden has decided to address the problem by commissioning the Federal Maritime Commission to verify that these extra costs do not come applied unmotivatedly ( of the 9 July 2021), FIATA urged both politicians and shipping companies to make sure that the fees of the destalliation and detention are proportionate and fair and have also invited the associations of shippers who report to the federation to highlight the problem at the level national.

Accomplices the expected instructions given in recent days to the FMC by the American president, in recent weeks the attention of national and international associations of freight forwarders it focuses on the costs of demurrage and detention, while in precedence was more generally focused on the excessive value of maritime freight until - and this seems to be the moment in to which the attention has shifted from the noli to the soprannoli - earlier this year the European Union announced that it would not would have launched an investigation into the costs of maritime transport less of a formal complaint, an act which the European associations CLECAT and ESC had expressed their intention to assess but that so far not have accomplished ( of the 25 January 2021).

On the other hand, the latest publication "Le shipping companies: an economic-financial analysis - balance sheets 2020 and quarterly 2021" drawn up for the sixth year consecutive from the Fedespedi Study Center. Referring to the recent performance of the China Containerized Freight Index (CCFI), the document highlights that since the end of 2020 sea freight have had a impressive increase: «made 100 the average of the january nuts 2020 - specifies the publication - in May 2021 they touched quota 317 on the China-Northern Europe route and 360 on the one China-Mediterranean. The reasons for growth - it is noted - are various: increasing concentration in the maritime transport sector of the container, increase in the market power of companies towards the customers (shippers and shippers) and suppliers (managers of terminal), careful management of blank sailing, etc.».

The document of the Fedespedi Study Center has the most general purpose of analyzing economic and financial performance of the main shipping companies and stresses that "the 2020 marked a decisive turning point for the companies of navigation, which despite the drop in traffic in volume, thanks to the sharp increase in the number of ticketing and cost containment measures, have achieved not only significant increases in turnover, but also above all, excellent results in terms of final profits, a difference of what happened in 2019». Publication specifies that, in particular, the main balance sheet indices, these are return on sales (ros) return on assets (roa) and return on equity (ROE) are positive for all companies analyzed and that the financial indicators also show a overall improvement compared to 2019.