Rise in shipping fees hit Vietnamese garment exporters
23 Mar '12
1 min read
Adding to the financial woes of the Vietnamese garment exporters, several shipping line operators serving Vietnam have raised their container shipping fees.
Earlier this month, shipping charges for various routes including Vietnam to the US, Vietnam to the Middle East, Vietnam to Europe and several others were raised.
Hong-based shipping operator OOCL increased its per container charges for routes from Vietnam to Mediterranean and northern European countries by US$ 600.
Likewise, German operator Hapag Lloyd maritime carrier has also raised its charges for Vietnam to North America route by US$ 600 per container.
Similarly, other shipping operators like NYK, CMA and Maesk Line have also hiked their charges by US$ 800 to US$ 1,000 per container.
According to a garment exporter, even where the transportation costs are borne by the importer, there are many other charges like fuel surcharge and container imbalance charge, that garment and textile exporters need to bear.
Also, he said that it is not feasible for export firms to increase export prices to offset these losses, as it becomes difficult to convince importers to pay higher prices.