ISC: Shippers object congestion surcharges

The ISC called to strongly protest the surcharge noting that the shipping lines and their agents have turned a temporary surcharge into a permanent addition
 
The Israeli Shippers Council (ISC) protested last week against congestion surcharges applied by many shipping lines serving Israeli ports and called the shippers to object to the payment of such surcharge.
 
The ISC called upon the shipping community to strongly protest the surcharge noting that the shipping lines and their agents have turned a temporary surcharge into a permanent addition to the freight charge.
 
The ISC also noted that there has been consistent improvement in the Ashdod and Haifa  ports' service level, reflected in significant decrease in congestion and turn-around-time in the port. The ISC noted that in 2009 container productivity (crane productivity -moves per crane-hour) at Ashdod reached TEU 22.2 per hour compared to TEU19.4 in 2008 and in Haifa TEU 23.3 per hour compared to TEU21.1 in 2008.
 
In Ashdod the port has successfully adopted TOS – Computerized Terminal Operations System which provides the port with state-of-the-art planning and management tools to improve utilization of berths, stacking areas, equipment and manpower which benefited the shipping companies.