ISSUE 1 2010

Port charges are making UK uncompetitive

that day on agree to fair and just rates going forward. The payments which we have already made must either be refunded to us or used to reduce our bill.” He added that he had

High port charges are in danger of making the UK uncompetitive as a trading location warned the boss of a leading port logistics operator. In a speech to the Chartered Institute of Logistics and Transport in London on 15 April, Peter Aarosin, CEO of leading Humberside operator RMS Group said that UK manufacturing competition is being strangled by unrealistically high UK port costs. He pointed out that the cost

of receiving a cargo of 18,000 tonnes of steel coils, used in a wide range of manufacturing industries would cost as little as €21,000 (£18,500) in the cheapest continental port, Hamburg, but no less than £72,000 in Immingham. It was a similar picture for

exports from the UK, with if anything an even greater disparity between UK and continental prices. To make matters worse,

the Government had also empowered the Inland Revenue’s Valuation Office to levy direct rates bills on port operators throughout the country, without any consultation with companies, who received bills for three years of backdated rates. Mr Aarosin said: “What we

would like as port operators is to see a total cancellation of the back-dated rates, get a date fixed and then from

the support of the Treasury Select Committee and the abolition of the backdated tax was also supported by Tories and Liberal Democrats, along with local Labour MPs. However, all had “met with a stone wall in trying to get the government to accept their recommendations.” In a subsequent interview

with FBJ, he added: “However, both the Liberal democrats and the Conservatives have now promised to review the situation and the ports industry in general.” In his speech, Peter Aarosin

also said that the Humber ports were handicapped by a lack of healthy competition and a lack of investment. He added: “You must

wonder why the Humber has never seen a container terminal being built. Had the competitive aspect of the Humber been addressed, I am sure that we would today have had a thriving container port which would have ensured the shortest distance to market for many daily consumer products.” He congratulated the

Teesport for its port-centric development, which had attracted several major importers – and which had succeeded in winning important coal and biomass import contracts for Drax Power Station, despite the fact that Tyneside was twice as far away as Immingham. Humberside needed better marketing if it was to properly fulfill its potential, he said.

Customs turmoil warning

Freight software expert Peter MacSwiney warned that international trade could be facing its biggest upheaval in EU Customs ever. The chairman of Agency Sector Management said that Customs authorities throughout the 27 EU states are centralising and automating systems, which could lead to a significant rise in compliance issues. “Even something as straightforward as Authorised Economic Operator (AEO) accreditation has thrown up unexpected issues,” he said.

NEWS

Iraq port bids to become box hub

The AFP news agency has reported that a consortium led by Italian engineering firm Technital will start construction on a huge new container port at Fao, Iraq in early May. Fao (sometimes referred to as Al- Faw) currently a moribund oil port 335 miles from Iraq at the southernmost tip of the country,

will also be linked by a new rail line to the Turkish border in the north.

Currently the port is blocked

by wrecked vessels and is used mainly by local fishermen, though it remains under the jurisdiction of the General Company for Iraq Ports. With a projected 100 berths

and a capacity of up to 99m tonnes a year, it could even rival Jebel Ali as a Middle East transhipment hub, said the Iraqi National Investment Commission. According to the AFP report, it could handle the largest container ships and other large vessels. It would also provide an

alternative outlet to Iraq’s current main port at Umm Qasr, which cannot be expanded sufficiently to meet the country’s entire needs, says the Commission. The Investment Commission

costs the first phase of the project at £4 billion and the first 15 berths could be built in about two years, it says.

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