A group of shipowner associations is urging the Panama Canal Authority (ACP) to delay new charges set to be applied this weekend which could see some ships paying up to 40% more to use the historic waterway.
In a strongly worded letter the International Chamber of Shipping (ICS), Asian Shipowners’ Association and European Community Shipowners’ Association (ECSA) complained to ACP chief executive Ricaurte Vasquez Morales that their members cannot afford the fees, which have not been justified.
The new so-called Water Conservation charge was announced in January to pay for measures to remedy a water shortage.
But the ICS, and its cosignatories, said the new fees come when shipowners' purse strings are already stretched by IMO 2020.
“As had been anticipated, since the entry of the IMO sulphur cap, fuel costs, which were already by far shipping’s greatest cost, have increased even more significantly since 1 January 2020. As a result, we kindly request the ACP take these developments into consideration and at the very least postpone the implementation date by six months, in August 2020,” the letter read.
To back their argument the shipowner associations said that notification of the hike in charges came at short notice and with no consultation as is usually the case when Panama Canal tolls are revised.
“There was very little time provided for discussion and consideration of these latest comprehensive changes. In fact, no consultation at all took place, simply a notification,” the shipowners’ associations said.
Because of the short notice period, they pointed out that there was not enough time for ship operators to pass the charges onto shippers.
Although the charges were applied to pay for water conservation measures following a period of low rainfall, the shipowners said the additional fees were simply “akin to another hike in toll charges”.
The shipowners associations wrote: “The industry, therefore, reiterates that these water sustainability issues should be more clearly justified in writing, through a robust implementation plan as had been requested by the industry and agreed by the ACP.”
The joint letter was signed by ICS secretary general Guy Platten, ECSA secretary general Martin Dorsman and ASA acting secretary general Michael Phoon.
