GSF:Carriers skirt contracts on ?unprecedented scale?

GSF:Carriers skirt contracts on æunprecedented scaleÆ    The Global Shippers' Forum said Friday it would continue to take liner regulation to the carrier industry, the group said in a declaration from its annual meeting this week.
   GSF, which brings together shipper associations from Asia, Europe, North America and Africa, met in Macau this week. The group railed against carrier behavior this year.
   'The past year has witnessed a variety of unacceptable shipping practices, ranging from the imposition of abrupt and opportunistic rate increases and surcharges, cargo 'rollovers,' the limitation of shipping capacity and a general lack of adherence to rate agreements and contractual arrangements on an unprecedented global scale,' the declaration said. 'This has resulted in major disruption to global supply chains, often resulting in delayed deliveries especially for time-sensitive shipments.'
   Lauding regulation in Europe and praising lawmakers in the United States pressing for more stringent regulation of liner carriers, the GSF characterized Asian liner regulation as the 'missing link' in a harmonious network for shippers and carriers to adhere to.
   'The GSF recognizes that while there have been major changes in Europe to bring the shipping industry into line with the normal provisions of antitrust laws and similar progress in North America to regulate the activities of carrier agreements, and with further measures imminently to follow, there has been no corresponding progress in Asia and other regions such as the African continent,' the declaration said.
   'Evidence at the seminar confirmed that the impact of carrier practices on Asian and African shippers was dramatically worse than in Europe and North America. EU competition laws provide severe penalties and sanctions for the kind of activities experienced by Asian shippers in the transpacific and intra-Asia shipping markets, and civil law penalties and remedies are potentially available to European shippers through the courts for breach of contract. In North America, the (Federal Maritime Commission) has responded swiftly to certain carrier practices that have disrupted imports and exports by instigating a fact finding inquiry and Congress is likely to table an antitrust bill shortly.'
   Aside from shipper representatives, the forum was attended by a representative from the Shanghai Shipping Exchange, which is producing an index for containerized freight rates. But GSF members added, 'greater clarity was needed with regard to the objectives of the Shanghai Shipping Exchange, particularly in regard to the freight rate index, which gave rise to a number of concerns over how the information was compiled and used.' ' Eric Johnson