Terminal operators urged to know their customers better

OPERATORS of container terminals are being urged to study their shipper, forwarder and shipping line customers more carefully during times of crisis, according to a new report from Ocean Shipping Consultants (OSC).

Container Terminal Management-A Post-crisis Perspective maintains that during the 2008-2009 global financial crisis, loss-making shipping lines were quick to turn on ports and terminals to generate costs savings.

With global container movements falling 10 per cent in 2009, many terminal operators were unable to resist pressure from the ocean liners and reduced tariffs to maintain volumes. The report claims that operators that refused lost market share and vessel calls.

"During the crisis, the shipping lines turned to terminal operators for realising cost savings," said an OSC spokesman, "announcing that volumes would be switched to other ports if certain discounts were not granted."

Had the ports and terminals studied their shipping lines' customer base, geographic spread and the impact on hinterland costs if they moved to a rival port, they would have been able to make more informed decisions, according to the report.

"It helps the commercial policy of ports and terminals if they have a good insight into the rationality of such threats," said a spokesman, according to London's International Freighting Weekly. "Would there be a commercial risk of losing or gaining volumes if a certain port is no longer, or less frequently, called at?

"An example was Hamburg, which lost considerable transhipment volumes to Antwerp and Rotterdam because they refused to reduce tariffs because they believed they had a strong position."
(Source:www.schednet.com)