CLECAT DEMANDS MORE COMPETITION IN CONTAINER TRANSPORT

The European Association for Forwarding, Transport, Logistics and Customs Services expresses its firm disappointment with the EU Commission’s attitude to maintaining unjustified privileges in the transport sector and Invites member states to monitor the current critical situation of international trade.

The existing distortions in the maritime transport sector are based on some privileges and benefits enjoyed by shipping companies which have allowed shipping lines before joining consortia, for exchange commercially sensitive data in order to share the cargo capacity on ships and coordinate route planning and then to expand their activities through vertical integration processes. Since the Maritime Forum in March, CLECAT and other organizations of shippers and port terminal operators have made the EU Commission aware of the need to limit the income positions of shipping companies, without, however, have not been able to bring about a change of perspective on the part of the Commission itself, which has maintained its line of inaction, choosing not to intervene in the conduct of shipping companies and their consequences on container transport. The Association now also appeals to individual Member States, reiterating that in a year marked by the pandemic crisis and the contraction of global trade, the profits of shipping lines have reached historic records at the same time as the collapse in the quality of service rendered.