Much of the commentary in the media about the Australian Competition & Consumer Commission’s investigation into the shipping industry now appear to be hot air blown about by self-interested parties.
Ahead of the publication of this year’s Container Stevedoring Monitoring Report, Shipping Australia met with senior officials from the ACCC recently to provide an extensive written and verbal brief about the current...
Rod Sims, the Australian Competition & Consumer Chairman, has forcefully argued that market competition in Australia is facing big challenges.
Speaking at the UniSA & ACCC Competition Law and Economics Workshop recently, Mr Sims addressed a variety of topics including merger law reform, and the requirement to prove the future in competition-centred lawsuits.
Merger reformMr Sims noted that Australia is an “outlier” compared with other advanced...
https://www.shippingaustralia.com.au/effectiveness-of-competition-law-is-at-stake-says-accc-chair/
Shipping Australia notes that the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission will be investigating the current shipping environment.
“We welcome the investigation as it will show that the current issues are caused by normal market mechanisms and by bottlenecks in the supply chain,” said Shipping...
Australia’s competition watchdog is appealing against the decision of the Federal Court in the NSW container terminal competition case.
At the time of privatisation of the ports of Newcastle, Botany and Kembla, the State Government had agreed for 50 years to compensate the operator of Port Botany & Port Kembla if container traffic at the soon-to-be rival Port of Newcastle rose above a certain threshold. The agreement was contained in documents known as “Port...
https://www.shippingaustralia.com.au/accc-appeals-federal-courts-container-terminal-decision/
By the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission
The ACCC has determined not to exempt the services provided by South Australian grain handler Viterra at its Port Lincoln and Thevenard facilities from parts of the Port Terminal Access (Bulk Wheat) Code.
The decision means that Viterra will continue to be subject to the non-discrimination requirements of the Code at its Port Lincoln and Thevenard facilities, and must also provide...
By industry contributors Port of Newcastle and NSW Ports.
On Tuesday 21 July the Federal Court published its judgement in the case of Australian Competition and Consumer Commission v NSW Ports. This is the case about the financial payments to the State of NSW and to NSW Ports that are triggered if a certain threshold of containers handled is...
TasPorts has given a court-enforceable undertaking to the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission after the port operator admitted that it had engaged in conduct likely to have the effect of substantially lessening competition.
TasPorts provided towage, pilotage and other services to a mining company that owns and operates ship loading infrastructure at Port Latta in Northern Tasmania.
The mining...
https://www.shippingaustralia.com.au/accc-accepts-pro-competitive-undertaking-from-tasports/
Don’t be silly, of course, the shipping lines are not a cartel.
And then the central governments and the stevedores are the nice guys in our supply chain plot, fully supportive of a shipper’s business.
Although this is a really Australian-centric story, the narrative is strikingly similar all around the world. Hint: I can feel a shipping line congestion charge coming on, just in time for the American summer…
On the Waterfront
The 1954 Academy …
The post Against the odds: On the waterfront...
Controversial terminal access charges have again helped Australia’s stevedores to increase revenue and profit margins, despite the largest volume drop in a decade.
The country’s four major terminal operators handled 7.57m teu during the financial year ending 30 June, down 4%, according to the Container stevedoring monitoring report 2019-20, published today by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC).
However, the report found industry revenue increased 2.8%, to A$1.42bn...
https://theloadstar.com/australian-stevedores-getting-richer-but-customers-seeing-poorer-service/
The National Competition Council has announced a draft decision to recommend that the designated Minister not declare the services at the Port of Newcastle.
A “declaration” under Part IIIA of the Competition and Consumer Act 2010 (Cth) would enable actual and potential users of a service to negotiate with the service provider and, if the negotiation is unsuccessful, would provide...
https://shippingaustralia.com.au/competition-council-recommends-against-declaration-at-newcastle/