Vietnamese import-import firms are paying unreasonable types of additional charges

Emergency risk charge, strike charge, container imbalance charge, and agency charge, etc. are the types of charges that shipping carriers have been taking from Vietnam’s import-export firms.

Many firms said that instead of simplifying procedures, cutting costs and charges, shipping carriers tend to increase charges and use more types of charges. Some carriers confirmed to start charging for Container Imbalance Charge (CIC) from early April 2011. The lowest rate is $30 per 20-feet container

Business manager of a large shipping carrier from Singapore with office in HCM City said that to date the company has not charged CIC. However, in the near future, for imported goods, the charge would be $30 per container. The reason is said to be the imbalance of the number of imported and exported containers.

Agent offices of the shipping carriers operating in HCM City are always crowded. Import-export employees of businesses in HCM City, Binh Duong and Dong Nai, etc. have to wait for rather long time for their turn to pay the charges for transport services. If early payment were not made, goods would not be released, and thus firms would have to pay additional fees for storage charge of up to millions of dong per day.

H, staff in charge of import and export activities of a garment firm in HCM City said that he is stressful when receiving a series of bills to pay the shipping agents. “If calculating the fees paid to ports, shipping agents and shipping carriers on each exported container, we have to pay more than 10 different types of charges”, he added. For an average of 250 containers imported and exported monthly, the company has to pay several billions of dong of additional charges.

Many firms are stressful when they started having to pay CIC from mid of March 2011. The shipping carriers explained that as the quantity of imported goods are higher than exported goods, thus they have to export empty containers.

Ngoc Thuy, staff in charge of documents and customs procedures of a logistics firm in HCM City said that CIC is applied mostly to Asian routes. The rate is usually $60 per 20-feet container and $120 per 40-feet container. Thuy added that charging this type of fee is unreasonable. Firms have no choice when all carriers simultaneously apply this charge, and the rates are just a few dollars different.

According to K., import-export manager of V garment joint stock company, since most of textile and garment enterprises import raw materials from China, Korea, and Taiwan, which are not their main export markets, when the number of containers imported is higher than that of containers exported, the carriers must send back the empty containers and the charges are on the domestic firms.

Businesses that regularly have goods exported and imported said that Emergency Bunker Surcharge (EBS) is commonly applied by shipping carriers, at $20 to $30 per 20-feet container and $40 to $60 per 40-feet container for short distances; at $90 per 20-feet container and $180 per 40-feet container for long distances.

The most unreasonable point is if firms export goods to the countries that usually have strikes, the carriers would collect strike charges with rate of up to $180 per 40-feet container. Moreover, there are container cleaning charges, surcharges when going through risky sea areas, currency surcharges, etc., said Thuy. There are many other unreasonable charges, such as charge for separating bills and granting authorisation papers, container lift-on lift-off charge, container loading and discharching charge, agency charge, storage charge, etc.

According to preliminary calculations of businesses operating in shipping services, for a 40-feet container of imported goods to be on board immediately, firms have to pay 12 to 13 million-dong surcharges of all kinds. The number of charges is slightly less for exported goods.

Representative of Lien Anh shipping services company, which specialises in import and export services in HCM City, shipping carriers collect new charges or increase existing charges without notice and roadmap. The reason is that foreign shipping companies are dominating and controlling almost the entire market for sea transport services of import and export goods of Vietnam.

According to logistics service firms, not only having to pay the above unreasonable charges, some firms importing goods from China also have to pay charges for their partners. For firms importing goods by CIF price, since exporters do not pay for some types of charges at the port of shipment (in China), charges are transferred to Vietnamese firms. Due to carelessness, some firms have to pay twice for some fees such as emergency risk charges, loading charges or EBS, etc. If not paying, they cannot obtain the goods, while storage charge is added.

To avoid this situation, firms need to read the contract carefully and clearly agree on what types of additional charges each party has to pay for the carrier.

At a briefing in export on April 5, vice minister of Industry and Trade Nguyen Thanh Bien said that issue on indiscriminate charging has taken place for many years. Particularly, since 2008, before the reaction of businesses that manufacture export goods, the interministerial teams including members of Ministry of Transport, Ministry of Finance, and Vietnam Charmber of Commerce and Industry (VCCI) conducted inspection. However, the coordination between the agencies and associations of goods owners was not good enough to find the reasons to work with foreign shipping companies.

Bien requested Import and Export Department (Ministry of Industry and Trade), VCCI and associations of goods owners to promptly review the charging of foreign shipping companies and propose to the state agencies to take specific measures with foreign shipping companies. Moreover, the authorities need to find regimes to prevent the monopoly of foreign shipping companies. – Tuoitre