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Seven shipping lines plying the Taiwan-Hong Kong/South China route are attempting to re-impose the Emergency Bunker Surcharge(EBS) that they put on hold after their announcement to collect the charge from July 1st.

According to the Hong Kong Shippers' Council, seven liners have told customers they will start collecting fees from mid-July at HK$440-HK$450 per TEU and HK$880-HK$900 per FEU.

Of the eight original shipping lines known to be involved in the levy, OOCL (HK) Ltd has said that it will not be going ahead with the surcharge. The other seven liners are Evergreen Marine (Hong Kong) Ltd, Regional Container Lines (HK) Ltd, TS Lines Ltd, Wan Hai Lines (HK) Ltd, Kanway Shipping Ltd, Cheng Lie Navigation (HK) Co Ltd, and Yang Ming Marine Transport Corp.

According to the Hong Kong Shippers' Council, the slightly different levels or effective dates do not change the anti-competitive nature of the levy. Willy Lin, chairman of the Hong Kong Shippers’ Council said “We are shocked by the irresponsible attitude of the lines imposing this new EBS. They have not replied to our letters, have offered neither clarification of their actions nor any justification for the charge which is against all shipping settlement methods that we practice here in the region. These lines are attempting to collect money from both sides—freight has been prepaid at origin and now they want to collect EBS at the destination point”.

Shippers and consignees in southern China said that unlike Hong Kong where there was a two-week holdback for collecting the EBS, they have been paying the surcharge to the lines bringing cargo from Taiwan since July 1st.

“This is a case of plain extortion,” said Toland Lam, Executive Chairman of the Shenzhen Shippers’ Association. “All we want to do is to get the cargo to its destination without disruption and the lines have imposed this charge collectively so that we have no choice, since they cover nearly 100% of the Taiwan-south China trade.”

“The entire region will suffer the consequences of this unreasonable, irresponsible action of these lines, as there will be disruptions and costly results,” said Frank Tang, chairman of the Macau Shippers’ Association.

The matter has been reported to the regulatory authorities that are in charge of competition issues in Hong Kong and in mainland China.

The Hong Kong Shippers' Council says "We are calling for their intervention and hope that the lines attempting to collect EBS will be made to see that manipulating certain trade lanes is a disgusting business practice and harmful to trade. The trade will eventually suffer economically with the disruptions and chaos caused by such irresponsible acts."