2023-2024财年澳大利亚集装箱装卸监管报告

2023–24 December 2024 Acknowledgment of country The ACCC acknowledges the traditional owners and custodians of Country throughoutAustralia and recognises their continuing connection to the land, sea and community. We payour respects to them and their cultures; and to their Elders past, present and future. Australian Competition and Consumer CommissionLand of the Ngunnawal people 23 Marcus Clarke Street, Canberra, Australian Capital Territory, 2601 © Commonwealth of Australia 2024 This work is copyright. In addition to any use permitted under theCopyright Act 1968, all material contained within this work is provided under aCreative Commons Attribution 4.0 Australia licence, with the exception of: ƒthe Commonwealth Coat of Arms ƒthe ACCC and AER logosƒany illustration, diagram, photograph or graphic over which the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission does not hold copyright, butwhich may be part of or contained within this publication. Requests and inquiries concerning reproduction and rights should be addressed to the General Manager, Strategic Communications, ACCC,GPO Box 3131, Canberra ACT 2601. Important notice The information in this publication is for general guidance only. It does not constitute legal or other professional advice, and should not be reliedon as a statement of the law in any jurisdiction. Because it is intended only as a general guide, it may contain generalisations. You should obtainprofessional advice if you have any specific concern. The ACCC has made every reasonable effort to provide current and accurate information, but it does not make any guarantees regarding theaccuracy, currency or completeness of that information. Parties who wish to re-publish or otherwise use the information in this publication must check this information for currency and accuracy prior topublication. This should be done prior to each publication edition, as ACCC guidance and relevant transitional legislation frequently change. Anyqueries parties have should be addressed to the General Manager, Strategic Communications, ACCC, GPO Box 3131, Canberra ACT 2601. ACCC 12/24_24_95 www.accc.gov.au Contents Key industry insights Global and domestic events caused major disruption in 2023–24 A series of global and domestic events destabilised the container freight supplychain in 2023–24, leading to congestion, delays and higher costs. At times,Australian importers paid up to 4–11 times more on Asia-Australia trade routesthan in 2022–23. Detailed enquiries revealed likely market failures in the supply chain Stevedores and empty container parks appear to have little incentive to activelypursue increases in market share by discounting landside charges, whileAustralian importers and exporters appear constrained in responding to priceincreases. These factors likely contributed to cargo owners paying highercharges for stevedoring and empty container park services. There seems to be limited competition between stevedores on landsidecharges. Stevedores increased landside charges to achieve higher total pricesthan would have likely been possible in a workably competitive market withsignificant spare terminal capacity. Some stevedores are levying weight misdeclaration fees while there appearsto be a gap in the maritime safety regulations. The ACCC is concerned thatstevedores appear to face few constraints in raising these fees and arelevying them on parties which are not responsible for declaring the weight ofcontainers. Empty container park notification fees to transport operators have increasedsignificantly across Australia since 2018 and in a similar manner to stevedores’landside charges. This indicates a lack of competitive tension in relation tonotification fees and warrants closer scrutiny. Reforms may be needed to improve efficiency of the supply chain Key results 2023–24 Revenue, cost, profit and investmenta Executive summary Major developments in the container freight supplychain in 2023–24 Our market enquiries indicate that 2023–24 has been a challenging year for Australian businessesthat rely on the container freight supply chain. After largely recovering from the COVID-19 pandemicin 2022–23, the supply chain was once again disrupted by a series of events in 2023–24, whichcaused a deterioration in reliability and a surge in costs. The supply chain was disrupted by global and domestic events Between November 2023 and January 2024, militants attacked commercial vessels sailing throughthe Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden. In response, most shipping lines decided to avoid the Suez Canaland rerouted their services to transit around the Cape of Good Hope. These disruptions compounded the existing challenges in the container freight supply chain arisingfrom the Panama Canal Authority restricting vessel flow through the canal from around July 2023 tomid-2024 due to unprecedented low water levels in Gatun Lake, which supplies the water to operatethe canal’s locks. In Australia, the con