NYK executive named chairman of IADA

NYK executive named chairman of IADA    Kinichi Hirayama, president of NYK group subsidiary Tokyo Senpaku Kaisha Ltd (TSK Line), has been elected chairman of the Intra-Asia Discussion Agreement (IADA), an industry trade group comprising 34 container carriers.
   The Japanese executive takes this position as IADA continues to press for higher freight rates.
   “Unfortunately, with charterage doubling, bunkers at historic highs and the unprecedented shortage of containers, we can see the operating environment has started to impact the service levels,” Hirayama said.
   TSK Line said carriers in the Asian near-sea sector are burdened by soaring bunker and charter costs, plus container shortages, while freight rates have failed to increase proportionately. “Therefore IADA members are each working independently to achieve rate restorations to maintain their quality of operations,” TSK Line said.
   According to TSK Line, IADA does not set freight or ancillary tariffs, but it does discuss general market trends and recommendations on frameworks for ancillary charges such as terminal handling charges, bunker adjustment charges, currency adjustment surcharges, and other detention or demurrage rules and charges.
   Hirayama acknowledged that Asian shippers are concerned about the system for calculating compensation for terminal handling charges.
   TSK Line cited current estimates indicating that intra-Asian container shipments total 12 million TEUs a year. Including the routes from Asia to the Middle East and the Indian Subcontinent brings the total traffic up to 18 million TEUs, it added.
   Former chairmen of the IADA include Sea-Land’s Frank Caradonna, Wan Hai’s C.C. Chen, David Young of Uniglory, Jim Poon of OOCL and Ken Kuroya of “K” Line.