It said these charges, based on daily surcharge, have accumulated to a significant amount and have been passed on directly to shippers or manufacturers.
Council chairman Andy Seo said any exemption given will be an important step in ensuring shippers’ ability to cope and their survival.
“Any failure to do this will have a detrimental impact on the overall economy,” he said in a statement.
Seo said MNSC greatly commended the timely intervention by the transport ministry to urge port authorities to waive port-related charges.
He said this had led the Port Klang, Johor and Sabah port authorities to grant a waiver on port storage charges during the MCO period.
“This move had greatly reduced the burden of financial losses that shippers will need to bear during this difficult period.”
Seo said Malaysia had made significant progress to kick-start its manufacturing activities since the conditional MCO was declared on May 4 as it allowed all manufacturing as well as import and export activities to resume at full capacity, subject to standard operating procedures set out by the health ministry.
“MNSC acknowledges the statement made by transport minister on June 27 that seaborne freight levels in particular have returned close to what they were before the MCO period.
“These are largely due to the requirement by Malaysian exporters to fulfil back orders that were held back during the MCO period.”
However, Seo said MNSC was however concerned about the new export orders amid weak global demand.
“Malaysia’s exports of goods and services declined for a third consecutive quarter by 7.1% in Q1 2020 (Q4 2019: -3.4%). The sharp fall in exports is attributable to the global economic recession and decreased trade volume caused by the Covid-19 outbreak.
“Shippers’ activities have been further dampened due to the shut-out of ports around the world. This is another factor causing a slowdown in imports and exports as the supply chain is affected.
“This issue is further exacerbated as most ports in the world practise 14 days’ quarantine for the crew and cargo for import shipments. This limits the shipping services, which increases the cost of shipping.
“Based on feedback from shippers, we note also the increase in logistics costs of between 10-20%, which will further cripple Malaysia’s export competitiveness during this recovery period.”
The MNSC, established in 1972, consists of mainly of commodity-based exporters. It promotes the interests of Malaysian exporters and importers, producers, manufacturers, trade and industry associations and commodity-based associations in relation to the transportation of goods.
Fake or not? Check our quick fake news buster here.