Stevedoring rates up 7.1% in mid May

Stevedoring rates may rise by around 7.1 percent in domestic ports in mid May.

The Ministry of Maritime Affairs and Fisheries unveiled that it reached an agreement to raise loading rates by 7.1 percent on average through the concerned bodies, including parties in the stevedoring industry, the Ministry of Commerce, Industry and Energy, the Korea Harbor Transportation Association, transportation and stevedoring unions, and the Korea International Trade Association.

It will consult with the Ministry of Finance and Economy in early May, it added.
In the mean time, stevedoring companies applied for raises of 7.7% (ranging from 5.0 to 12.7%) on average to individual regional MOMAF offices in order to improve management budgets. Transportation and stevedoring unions asked for a 10.9 percent hike in consideration of expected GDP (Gross Domestic Production) growth rates and consumer price increases in 2001. KITA, however, stressed that stevedoring companies had better try to accept the original stevedoring rates rather than raise them because real markets are providing rates 30 to 40 % lower than registered ones.

Stevedoring rates were raised by 1.6% in March 1999 and 5.3% in May last year, after a rates freeze in 1998 due to the currency crisis.