We thought this story in the Guardian was worth sharing with customers.
Waterfront operators’ soaring profit margins prompts concerns from competition regulator | Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) | The Guardian
It highlights the ever-increasing landside terminal charges being applied to Australia’s importers and exporters by Australian Stevedoring operators.
Extract appearing below:-
Paul Zalai, the director of the Freight and Trade Alliance representing importers, exporters and other market participants, said stevedoring companies were recording landside revenues through rising terminal access charges.
“Stevedores are laughing all the way to the bank with their unregulated money tap,” Zalai said.
“While it may not be collusion, it is definitely a case of follow the leader with stevedores taking turns to ratchet up the fee on transport operators who have no option but to pay to get access to container facilities.”
Operations at DP World were recently disrupted by a major cyber-attack, as well as prolonged industrial action by port workers.
Zalai said that the high terminal charges set by stevedores, as well as the costs of delays linked to the industrial action, were resulting in higher consumer prices.
“These costs cascade down the supply chain, on the import side it will inflate consumer costs, and for exports, the costs will flow back to regional producers, farmers and local communities,” Zalai said.
As members of the Freight and Trade Alliance (FTA), we fully support the need for reforms to the way such costs are currently being applied and passed on without consequence.
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