Price war may help rates by Karen Miles • The
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long-standing row between the shipping lines and international traders over profit levels intensified this week in a dispute that could ultimately benefit hard-pressed container hauliers.
The latest round in the war of words was set off by the EC Commission, which says it is prepared to look into complaints that the shipping lines are breaking the law by fixing inland haulage rates.
If the Commission accepts that price fixing does go on, and subsequently forces the lines to stop it, a price war could result which would put further downard pressure on the rates paid by the shipping lines to hauliers.
But customers, known as shippers, argue that such a move could reduce the power of the shipping lines, and so improve haulage rates.
The move against the shipping lines by the EC has been greeted with glee by shippers: "We argue that the haulier is being squeezed by the shipping line and that the shipper is paying over the rate at a fixed price," says Chris Welsh of the British Shippers Council. "If the price fixing is broken the haulier could charge a higher rate and the shipper would also pay less. However the shipping lines have a different view. They say: "The Commission's case so far has been based on a false premise. It will be rebutted — there's no question of that — on the basis of fact and law."
They warn that the case could be taken as far as the European Court of Justice.