A European Commission initiative to promote greater transparency in shipping line prices has been welcomed by the UK’s Freight Transport Association (FTA).
The Commission has invited comments from interested parties on commitments offered by 15 container liner shipping companies.
The move is intended to address EU concerns that the practice of container liner shipping companies of publishing their future price increase intentions may harm competition and breach the Union’s antitrust rules.
Container shipping accounts for the vast majority of non-bulk freight carried by sea and 15 carriers have regularly announced their intended future increases for freight prices in various ways, including by notices on their websites and in the press.
Those carriers are: China Shipping (China), CMA CGM (France), COSCO (China), Evergreen (Taiwan), Hamburg Süd (Germany), Hanjin (South Korea), Hapag Lloyd (Germany), HMM (South Korea), Maersk (Denmark), MOL (Japan), MSC (Switzerland), NYK (Japan), OOCL (Hong Kong), UASC (UAE), and ZIM (Israel).
Known as General Rate Increase (GRI) announcements, the notices do not indicate the fixed final price for the service concerned, but only the amount of the increase in US-Dollars per transported container unit (TEU), the affected trade route, and the planned date of implementation.
The Commission is concerned that GRI announcements do not provide customers with the full details of new prices, but simply allow carriers to explore each other’s pricing intentions and then coordinate their behaviour.
If that were the case, carriers would be in breach of EU competition rules, which ban concerted practices between companies.
In response to the Commission’s concerns, the carriers have offered a number of commitments which would change the way price increases are announced and applied.
Welcoming the move, the FTA said the Commission’s action will introduce a degree of transparency into maritime transport pricing for the first time.
