Shipping firms announced a monthly fee to compensate financial losses caused by congestion at capital Male’s commercial harbour which resulted in major ongoing delays in cargo unloading.
Local shipping line Lily International Pvt Ltd’s managing director Malla Ahmed Nasir said Sunday that the commercial harbour is currently congested due to importation of goods simultaneously on two or more cargo ships while the harbour lacks suitable facilities for unloading and clearing.
“There are many ongoing projects. On top of that we [Lily] alone are bringing around 800 containers of cargo. There is a lot of pressure to unload and clear all those goods at once,” he said.
Nasir noted that bouts of bad weather also hinder docking of freighters and the unloading process, occasionally preventing barges from approaching cargo ships to unload the goods.
“We’re facing major losses. In light of this issue, foreign shipping lines have also commenced a monthly fee,” he disclosed.
In an effort to minimise financial losses, Lily International has notified import companies of a monthly “Port Congestion Surcharge’ (PCS) that will come into effect in November. In its notice, Lily stressed the increased fees caused by the long delays in unloading and clearing cargo with the high negative impacts on the company’s financial situation.
However, Lily assured that the new fee will be lifted once the port congestion issue is solved.
According to the notice, Lily will charge USD 65 (MVR 1002.3) per cargo container or USD 3 (MVR 46.26) per square metre of container.
Another local import agent reported that containers that used to be unloaded within two days are recently taking over a week at times, thus delaying their delivery to businesses and surpassing deadlines.
Meanwhile, Maldives Ports Limited (MPL) had stated last June that the commercial harbour lacks sufficient equipment and vehicles to unload cargo, which will take around nine months to solve. MPL had decided to bring in 22 vehicles worth MVR 140 million to the harbour via China’s SANY Heavy Industry Co., Ltd including ten cranes, two forklift trucks and four empty container handlers.
MPL’s CEO Mohamed Junaid assured again on Sunday that the congestion issue of the commercial harbour will be solved with the arrival of the cargo handling vehicles. As the funds have been secured for their procurement, he declared that transporting them to the Maldives will commence soon.
“We’re not charging anything extra. Even now we’re discussing with shipping agents to reduce congestion.”
Several projects are currently underway for the development of MPL such as expansion of the harbour and cargo storage.
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