UNISAME URGES MARITIME MINISTRY TO IMPOSE RULES AND REGULATIONS ON SHIPPING COMPANIES

The Union of Small and Medium Enterprises (UNISAME) has voiced the concerns of the SME exporters to the exorbitant increase in freight rates and no monitoring. The shipping companies are at liberty to charge as much freight as they wish without any disciplinary regulations.

Unisame president Zulfikar Thaver said this is causing great hardships to SME exporters who are really in a fix and incurring losses as all their estimated freight calculations are going wrong. It is imperative that some rules and regulations are imposed to stop this and tariff is notified based on distances and destination port expenses.

Hussain Ali Rattani director HMI  Logistics Pakistan and convener Logistics Committee of UNISAME said on a private television channel that there is shortage of both containers and vessels. Empty containers are being shipped to China and due to not enough vessels cargo is being shut out at the ports resulting in heavy demurrage to the shippers. The shipping companies are not observing a system of first come first served but are obliging their favourite shippers and indulging in favouritism.

He added that our national carrier does not enough vessels in fact hardly having vessels for worldwide destinations. They only operate and take cargo for a handful of ports and do not contribute much to the logistics problems of Pakistani shippers..

UNISAME Council has invited the kind attention of Mahmood Moulvi Special Assistant to the prime minister for maritime (SAPM) to take notice of the prevailing situation which is disabling exports of our cargo to global destinations. The worst sufferers are the shippers of perishable and seasonal cargo as time is the essence and resulting in loss of business and also cargo expiring and becoming unfit  for shipments.