全球货主联盟GSA对当前航运危机的强烈抗议
布鲁塞尔，比利时，2021年2月17日
世界各地的托运人对混乱的航运市场和缺乏解决机制感到愤怒。
全球托运人联盟（GSA）及其个别成员表示，由此带来的损失是巨大的，全球经济和公众因此遭受巨大损失。
“生产、营销活动和分销都受到了干扰，”GSA和欧洲托运人理事会主席Denis Choumert说，“经济成本无法估量”。
欧洲托运人理事会秘书长戈弗里德·斯密特（Godfried Smit）表示，“欧洲许多主要港口都被堵住了，而集装箱船正在等待泊位，进港集装箱坐待清关，航运公司拒绝出境订舱，因为他们想加快集装箱返回远东的速度。”。戈弗里德接着说，“出境运费已经上涨了5-6倍，出口商可能仍然得不到预订”。
同样的情况也发生在远东地区。亚洲托运人联盟和印尼国家托运人委员会主席托托·迪尔甘托罗（Toto Dirgantoro）表示，“从远东到欧洲的运价在某些情况下增长了10至15倍，到北美的运价增长了3至4倍，即使是合同运价，现货运价也会更高。”。“航运公司接受基于盈利能力或长期战略重要性的预订，因此牺牲了中小型托运人。”。
更糟糕的是，该行业的可靠性和知名度正在迅速恶化。丹尼斯·乔默特接着说：“船只正在跳过港口，甚至取消一整条船都很常见，我们称这种做法为空船，最近在某些行业中，空船的数量增加了30%。”。丹尼斯说，“只有50%的船只准时到达——这影响了整个供应链。”
美国进出口商会（American Association of Exporters and Importers）前任主席兼首席执行官玛丽安•罗登（Marianne Rowden）表示，“在美国主要港口排队的船只数量正在上升。尽管COVID-19仍在继续，城市封锁仍在继续，但运输系统和整个供应链的压力依然沉重”。她说，“联邦海事委员会已被要求调查供需情况，我们期待着不久的运力增加”。
亚洲托运人还抱怨说，航运公司利用这一情况，征收了大量荒谬的新费用，如订舱确认费、未到港费、延迟取消费、集装箱保留费、加急订舱费等，这些费用闻所未闻，征收的水平高得离谱。
对目前情况的解决可能远远超出竞争主管机构的管辖范围。ESC于2021年1月会见了欧盟DG竞争委员会表示，“航运公司需要发布更多关于运力规划、运力变化、服务变化、需求预测等方面的核心信息，以摆脱合谋索赔。托运人几乎得不到这类信息，应当依靠有关当局来维护自己的利益。托运人永远不会与班轮公司处于同一个竞争环境中”。戈弗里德说。
GSA想强调的是，作为受竞争法的保护的交换，承运人必须承担的具体责任。这一保护已被授予全球运营商：运营商联盟现在是“国际贸易的把关人”，因为它们在许多企业的竞争力中发挥着至关重要的作用。他们不应该像今天这样滥用这些特权。
对我们托运人来说，令人担忧的是，欧盟委员会最近允许延长班轮运输集体豁免，但没有增加任何条件或调整，以检查班轮，更好地考虑托运人的利益，这可能有助于防止或减轻托运人目前受到的一些损害受苦。
GSA的目标是在所有市场参与者之间建立对话，以找到解决当前市场问题的共同方法，并制定有关整个生态系统的行动计划。GSA认为，航运危机反映了当前监管机制在保护整个全球供应链福祉方面的不足，特别是作为全球贸易命脉的航运业，需要立即进行审查。
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关于全球托运人联盟
全球托运人联盟（GSA）代表制造商、零售商和批发商的物流利益，统称为托运人。GSA由亚洲托运人联盟（ASA）、欧洲托运人理事会（ESC）和美国进出口商协会（AAEI）组成
GSA STATEMENT / PRESS RELEASE
Outcry of shippers worldwide at current shipping crisis
Brussels, Belgium, February 17th, 2021
Shippers worldwide are furious at the chaotic shipping market and the lack of mechanisms to resolve it.
The Global Shippers’ Alliance (GSA) and its individual members said that the impairments brought were immense, and global economies and the public suffered tremendously as a result.
“Production, marketing activities and distributions are all disrupted”, said Denis Choumert, Chairman of GSA, and the European Shippers’ Council, “and economic costs are beyond measure”.
Godfried Smit, Secretary General of European Shippers’ Council, said “many major European ports are jammed, while containers ships are waiting for a berth, inbound containers are sitting in the terminals to be cleared, and shipping lines are refusing outbound bookings because they want to expedite return of the containers to the Far East”. Godfried went on, “outbound freight rates have risen 5-6 times, and exporters may still not get a booking”.
The same happens in the Far East. Toto Dirgantoro, Chairman of the Asian Shippers’ Alliance and the Indonesian National Shipper’s Council said “freight rates from the Far East to Europe have increased 10 to 15 times on some occasions, and 3 to 4 times to North America, even for contract rates, and spot rates would be much higher”. “Shipping lines are accepting bookings based on profitability, or long term strategic importance, and hence small to medium sized shippers are sacrificed”.
Worse still, the industry is suffering from rapid deterioration of reliability and visibility. “Ships are skipping ports, and cancellation of even a whole string is common”, Denis Choumert went on, “we call this practice blank sailings and their number in some trade increased as much as 30% lately”. Denis said, “And as little as 50% of ships arrive on-time –this affect the whole supply chain.”
Marianne Rowden, immediate past President and CEO of American Association of Exporters and Importers expressed that “the number of ships queuing at major American ports are rising. While COVID-19 lingers on and city lock-downs continues, pressure on the transportation system and the whole supply chain is heavy”. She said, “the Federal Maritime Commission has been asked to look into the supply and demand situation, and we look forward to an increase of capacity shortly”.
Asian shippers also complain that shipping lines have taken advantage of the situation and levy a large number of ridiculous new charges like Booking Confirmation Fee, No Show Fee, Late Cancellation Fee, Container Retention Fee, Expedite Booking Fee, etc. These fees are unheard of and levied at ridiculously high level.
Resolution of the current situation might be well beyond competition authorities’ jurisdiction. The ESC met with the European Union DG-Competition in January 2021. “Shipping lines need to release more core information about capacity planning, capacity changes, service changes, demand forecast, etc. to clear themselves out of collusion claims. Shippers have little access to this sort of information and should rely on relevant authorities to safeguard their interests. Shippers are never on the same playing field with liners”. Godfried stated.
GSA would like to highlight the specific responsibility that carriers have to endorse in exchange of the protection they have from standard competition laws. This protection has been granted to carriers globally: the alliances of carriers are now the “gatekeepers for international trade” as they play a crucial role in the competitiveness of many businesses. They should not abuse of these privileges as it seems to be the case today.
For us the shippers, it is worrisome that the European Commission recently allowed the renewal of the block exemption for liner shipping consortia without adding any tool or adjustment to check liners and better consider shippers’ interests, which could have been instrumental in preventing or mitigating some of the damage shippers are currently suffering.
GSA is aiming to establish a dialogue between all the market participants in view of finding a common approach to the current market problems and setting up an action plan regarding the overall ecosystem. GSA considers that the shipping crisis reflects insufficiency in the current regulatory mechanisms in protecting the wellbeing of the whole global supply chain and particularly, that over the shipping industry – a lifeblood of global trade, need to be reviewed immediately.
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For further information, please contact: [KatsiarynaEllenJoost]
About Global Shippers’ Alliance
The Global Shippers’ Alliance (GSA) represents the logistics interests of manufacturers, retailers and wholesalers, collectively referred to as shippers. GSA consists of the Asian Shippers’ Alliance (ASA), the European Shippers’ Council (ESC), and the American Association of Exporters and Importers (AAEI).
