Shipping community haggles over Terminal Handling Charges

There is uneasy calm in the shipping sector between shipping lines/agents on one side and a critical mass of the shipping community made up of traders, freight forwarders and import/export businesses, following government’s decision to stop introduction of the Terminal Handling Charges (THC) as a local cost to shippers.

Some shipping lines are still imposing the terminal handling charges on importers and exporters, flouting an earlier directive from the Transport Ministry that annulled their intention to separate THC from the freight charged to shippers.

The situation is causing commotion between the two factions who are the predominant stakeholders in the country’s sea trade business, with the shippers and traders calling on the government to revoke the licence of the defaulting shipping lines.

The decision of the shipping lines to localise the THC was to cushion their business from the shocks of a gradual increase in operational cost, vis-à-vis the current decline in sea-freight.

But the leadership of ten business associations led by the Association of Ghana Industries (AGI) are kicking vehemently against it.

On September 2, the sector minister, acting on the report of the Ghana Maritime Authority (GMA) on the matter, scrapped the introduction of the THC as a local cost to shippers, on the grounds that no new service is being introduced by shipping firms in the ports to warrant such a charge.

Had the proposal been upheld, shippers in the country would have to cough out between US$140 and US$265 as the terminal handling charge for 20-foot and 40-foot containers respectively, to have their consignments offloaded from the carting vessel.

But according to the coalition of business associations, some shipping lines are “blatantly” imposing the THC on importers and exporters contrary to the directive from the sector minister and are therefore calling for heavy sanctions for the defaulting shipping lines.

The business coalition, which includes the Association of Ghana Industries (GIFF), the Ghana Institute of Freight Forwarders (GIFF) and the Ghana Union of Trade Associations (GUTA), has called for the withdrawal of licences of shipping lines that fail to comply with the minister’s directive.

A statement from the coalition copied to the B&FT indicated: “We are calling on government and the relevant institutions in the maritime industry, as a matter of urgency, to apply heavy sanctions, including withdrawal of licenses, against any shipping line and or agency that continues to act contrarily or attempts to impose such arbitrary charges on importers and exporters.”

The statement further asked importers or exporters not to accept an isolated THC since that cost is already part of the freight charges.

“All importers and exporters must always demand an all-inclusive freight cost. Any importer or exporter who has made any THC payment after September 2, 2016 should quickly put in a claim for refund,” it read.