Transport & Logistics News - June 2016 (Part 1)

Transport & Logistics News - June 2016 (Part 1) In brief - Local and international news about shipping

In part one of this issue, we cover local and overseas shipping news and summarise some interesting cases from Australia and around the world which have been handed down in the last eight months.

Shipping

International news

Verified gross mass (VGM) of packed containers

The International Maritime Organization (IMO) has addressed carriers' concerns about how transhipment cargo is to be treated when the International Convention for the Safety of Life at Sea (SOLAS) regulation V1/2 comes into effect in July 2016.

The problem concerns containers shipped prior to 1 July 2016, and therefore not subject to the new regime, which are transhipped at another port after 1 July 2016 without complying with the new regime.

The MSC.1/Circ 1548 provides that states should adopt a practical and pragmatic approach for three months after 1 July 2016 and permit such containers to be shipped to their final port of discharge without the VGM being specified.

Australian news

Coastal shipping reform

The Bill to repeal the Coastal Trading (Revitalising Australian Shipping) Act 2012 has been defeated in the Senate.

Part X of the Australian Competition and Consumer Act (CCA)

Since publication of the final report of the Competition Policy Review Panel (which we reported on in our last issue of Transport & Logistics News on 30 September 2015), the government has published its response to the Liner Shipping recommendation, namely the repeal of Part X, as follows:

The Government remains open to this recommendation.

The Government supports measures to ensure that liner shipping arrangements are competitive and efficient.

A general class exemption power will be introduced into the CCA, which will allow the ACCC to authorise broad classes of conduct.

The Government will work with the ACCC and relevant stakeholders, including shipping lines and importers and exporters, to investigate options regarding how a class exemption could be applied to the liner shipping industry to ensure that shipping routes to and from Australia continue to be reliably and competitively serviced and that the costs to obtain a class exemption are not burdensome.

Any options considered would need to be consistent with Australia's international law obligations.

Port of Melbourne lease

The formal transaction process for the 50-year lease of the Port of Melbourne commenced on 20 March 2016. It is hoped to realise $6 billion.

Trans Pacific Partnership Trade Deal (TPP)

In October 2015, Australia was one of 12 Pacific Rim countries that have entered into a TPP. The text of the TPP agreement was tabled by Minister Robb in the Australian Parliament on 9 February 2016. The 12 countries are Australia, New Zealand, United States, Canada, Mexico, Japan, Singapore, Chile, Peru, Vietnam, Malaysia and Brunei.

Australia has also separately entered into recent trade agreements with China, Korea and Japan.

On 17 May 2016, the Ministers of all signatories met to review progress on their respective internal processes to approve the TPP agreement.

Read our latest TPP publication, The Trans-Pacific Partnership: a brief overview from a transport and trade perspective.

Union amalgamations

Members of the Maritime Union of Australia (MUA) voted to authorise the union to enter merger negotiations with the Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union (CFMEU). The recently completed report of the Royal Commission into Trade Union Corruption was heavily critical of the activities of individuals involved with the CFMEU and also of activities of the MUA, in particular its Western Australia branch, where contributions from shipping and offshore companies were alleged to have been obtained by the use of threats. The sum of $3.2 million was identified as having been made through contributions from shipping companies to MUA political and union causes. While they were described as being "voluntary" and "legitimate", the Royal Commission described them as having been made to "secure industrial peace from, or to keep favour with, the MUA."

Cultural reforms on the waterfront

In the slow news period after Christmas, we were interested to read a report in the Australian Financial Review to the effect that DP World had banned its staff from swearing.

The future of Asciano

Qube and Canada's Brookfield joint bid to takeover Asciano appears to have stalled while ACCC considers the implications and litigation between Asciano and Australian Container Freight Services takes place.

On 26 May 2016, ACCC...