VISABA recommends strengthening management of foreign shipping line surcharges

The Vietnam Association of Shipping Agents, Brokers and Services (VISABA) proposes to add surcharges outside the price of container shipping services by sea to the list of goods and services subject to price declaration.

Vietnam is an important market for foreign shipping lines.

VISABA has just sent a document to the Prime Minister and a number of relevant ministries and branches proposing to strengthen the management of surcharges of foreign shipping lines.

Specifically, VISABA recommends that competent State management agencies add surcharges in addition to the price of container shipping services by sea to the list of goods and services subject to price declaration to perfect the mechanism for managing prices and surcharges for goods at seaports, avoiding cases where foreign shipping lines arbitrarily increase prices and overcharge, affecting the interests of cargo owners. In cases where surcharges are too profitable, special consumption tax must be imposed.

VISABA proposes to learn from the management experience of foreign shipping lines from neighboring countries such as China, Thailand, Singapore... to develop and perfect solutions to strengthen control over the operations of foreign shipping lines, avoid loss of State budget revenue, and protect domestic enterprises.

According to VISABA, Vietnam’s current legal regulations have been creating favorable conditions for foreign shipping lines to trade and operate at the country’s ports. However, the current state of foreign shipping lines’ operations in Vietnam has been significantly affecting the interests of import-export enterprises, seaports, logistics and state management.

Specifically, nearly 100% of Vietnam's import and export output is currently handled by foreign shipping lines. Meanwhile, foreign shipping lines entering and leaving ports and opening routes do not need to report because current Vietnamese law does not have regulations on registration and management of transport routes.

In addition, according to VISABA, shipping lines are collecting about 10 types of surcharges for goods at seaports (such as port handling surcharges - THC, document surcharges, fuel surcharges, container cleaning surcharges...), but the prices and types of surcharges are decided by the shipping lines themselves without any agreement with customers.

Vietnamese shippers are not the ones negotiating the transportation contract, so the surcharge terms proposed by the shipping line are forced to be accepted by the shipper in order to get the goods. VISABA leaders said that since the beginning of 2024, foreign shipping lines have continuously announced an increase of 10-20% in THC fees for each type of container service.

It is worth noting that when shipping lines want to adjust fees and surcharges, they only need to list price changes 15 days before the price adjustment date and do not have to go through inspection and explanation of the elements constituting fees and surcharges (according to Decree 146/2016/ND-CP dated November 2, 2016 on listing prices, surcharges outside the price of container shipping services by sea, and service prices at seaports). Foreign shipping lines have been asking depots for very strong discounts, up to 50-60% of the lifting and lowering price, while this fee is not related to shipping lines.

“With 25 million TEUs passing through Vietnamese seaports, including about 15 million import-export containers, Vietnam is an important market for foreign shipping lines. Their average surcharge is 200 USD/container, so every year we are leaving over 3 billion USD uncontrolled. This increases logistics costs and reduces the competitiveness of Vietnamese goods with other countries,” said a representative of VISABA.

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