Sri Lanka THC ban to spark call for wider box shipping reform

The Sri Lankan government will be banning the charging of THCs from January a move which has already been welcomed by Asian shippers.

The levying of THC and other surcharges by box lines have long been seen as a way of artificially increasing freight rates and not related to the real cost of services the charges are designed to cover.

“The proposed Sri Lanka reforms are likely to be a catalyst for wider demands, especially in the developing world, for greater regulatory oversight of liner shipping and shipping charging practices where anti-trust exemptions remain in place,” said Chris Welsh, secretary-general of the GSF.

“In the absence of effective competition in many regions of the world, there is a growing belief that tougher controls on liner shipping are needed to regulate carrier practices relating to freight tariffs to provide much needed transparency into shipping charges and surcharges”

While Europe has banned liner conferences and the US has strict regulation through the Ocean Shipping Reform Act, this is not the case in much of Asia, Latin America and Africa.