Shipping has had a peak at what charges from the US it faces for links to Chinese tonnage.
Appearing in front of a Senate Finance Committee yesterday, US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer said his organisation had taken onboard the huge volume of complaints registered during a public hearing into proposals to charge companies with Chinese tonnage on their books extra for port calls in the US.
Following an investigation into Chinese shipbuilding practices, and with the aim of rescucistiating American shipyards, the trade body had recommended a triple-pronged set of potential fees for Chinese-linked vessels that could have amounted to as much as $3.5m per US port call, something that drew nearly 400 responses, mostly negative, when a public hearing was held last month.
They’re not all going to be implemented. They’re not all going to be stacked
“They’re not all going to be implemented. They’re not all going to be stacked,” Greer said yesterday, likely to the relief of many in shipping who are still having to come to terms with the many other bombshells being unleashed by the second instalment of the Donald Trump administration which include tariffs, walking away from the International Maritime Organization, and laying down claims to the Panama Canal.
Full details of the US port fees on China-linked tonnage are likely to be revealed later this month.
American deliberations on charging more for Chinese-linked tonnage has already seen a shift in ship buying preferences over the past month, both for newbuilds and the secondhand market.
In related news, Huntington Ingalls Industries (HII), America’s top military shipyard, and South Korean giant HD Hyundai Heavy Industries (HHI), have signed a memorandum of understanding this week to explore opportunities to collaborate on accelerating ship production in support of defence and commercial shipbuilding projects.
HHI’s Korean rival, Hanwha Ocean, acquired Philly Shipyard last year, while also buying a 9.9% stake in Austal last month, an Australian yard with assets in the US.
South Korea’s trade and industry minister Ahn Duk-geun said today that potential cooperation with Washington in the shipbuilding sector is a “very important card” in negotiating with the US over its tariffs.
