Ocean freight and shipping surcharges Vietnam is always a topic attracting the interest of many stakeholders. There is a view that the company exports are suffering the brunt of these costs. However, understanding the methods constituting the costs of transport will help to have more objective perspective on this issue.
Overall, less than 25% of cases, the domestic export company paid freight in Vietnam because most freight is negotiated and paid abroad by international importers. According to Nguyen Thi Ngoc Bich – CEO of Maersk Vietnam, of the type charges and surcharges, the surcharges collected in port container operations (THC) and other types of surcharges accounted from 4- 7% of total revenues of the carriers.
Also, when placed next to general inflation in the economy, the increase of the shipping surcharge is much lower than the inflation rate of Vietnam. For example, CMA has not increased shipping surcharge THC from September 2013; while Maersk Line, MSC and APL-NOL, only increased at an average of 2% per year. THC and surcharge fee vouchers in Vietnam currently 2nd lowest in the region, second only to Thailand.
So local surcharge rate (also known as “local charge”) as today is obviously not unreasonable, but depends on the different costs that shippers have to pay to operate in each country. Moreover, we also need a clear distinction types surcharge will be collected by any unit, carriers, logistics companies and intermediary companies transporting goods.
On the other hand, can not accurately calculate the freight when based only on a single country, by a common ship will navigate through multiple ports in various countries to collect the goods. This is the cause of creating competition in transport costs across countries.
Indeed, the cost of transport worldwide has declined in recent years, bringing benefits to both exporters and importers. Especially at the moment, on the Asia – Europe, sea freight of Vietnam was on par with major ports in Asia and is at record low levels in history.
Nguyen Thi Ngoc Bich – CEO of Maersk Vietnam also shared that Agreement Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) and free trade agreement (FTA) between Vietnam and the EU promises to bring more muscle commercial development opportunities as well as boosting demand for marine transport of our country. Specifically, merchandise trade between the US and Vietnam has increased 16% this year and is expected to continue to rise sharply in the coming year. Raising the level of competition in the sea freight will create opportunities to expand export markets for Vietnam.
She also shared that: “With the growing trend of global commerce, Maersk Line has provided transparent information to businesses on our website – information such as train schedules and information all kinds of surcharges and tariffs, monitor the status of the container – we are committed to continue to improve services and modern technological solutions to facilitate customer interaction with Maersk Line. ”
Ms Bich said that Vietnam should organize more conferences for shipping companies and shippers to facilitate multinational shipping lines to share information about the development of the transport market maritime world, updated information on developments and surcharges for freight shippers, create transparent exchange of information. From there, the shipping industry can develop effective and ready to welcome the “wave” of investment to Vietnam, help promote economic growth of the country.
According to the Business Forum.
