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By Kenneth Jukpor
French Container Transportation and Shipping Company, CMA CGM has followed in the footsteps of the Mediterranean Shipping Company (MSC) in announcing the suspension of the application of the peak season surcharge on ships calling in Nigeria from lst October, 2020.
Barely one week ago, MSC had suspended application of the surcharge from lst September 2020 as a result of protests by Nigerian Shippers’ Council (NSC) and stakeholders.
The suspension of the peak season surcharge was contained in a letter sent to the Executive Secretary/CEO of Shippers’ Council, Mr. Hassan Bello from the Head Office of CMA CGM in France.
The Head of Public Relations, NSC, Rakiya Zubairu revealed this in a press release disseminated yesterday.
Wide condemnation by shipping stakeholders and Organized Private Sector (OPS) groups had trailed the recent 400 percent increment in peak season surcharges by global shipping companies.
Recall that NSC recently convened a meeting of the Organized Private Sector to deliberate on the astronomical peak season surcharge imposed by shipping lines calling in Nigeria.
The Union of African Shippers’ Council (UASC) also backed Shippers’ Council as it also called for immediate suspension of the peak season surcharge describing it as a violation of previous UASC/European Community Shipowners Association (ECSA) agreement requiring prior, mutual and reasonable notification of UASC and PMAWCA by individual shipping companies before any such imposition of new tariff, surcharges or increase in transport cost.
