Asian ship operators urged to discuss Malacca costs

Source: PW

The Singapore Shipping Association (SSA) has urged the Asian shipping industry to participate in discussions on the cost of ensuring navigational safety in the Malacca Strait.

While SSA acknowledges the initiatives put forward during the maritime forum, the Singapore-based association hopes for ''further discussions on the issue before a consensus paper can be made to the International Maritime Organisation (IMO).''

There has been a call for shipping firms to pay a ''toll'' going through the Malacca Strait following a recently concluded maritime forum in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

The SSA has noted with interest an approach that had been made in seeking to establish an acceptable mechanism for voluntary funding.

''We would like to know how the funds are to be collected, managed and distributed. There should also be further consultation on the voluntary funding mechanism that will be established with all interested stakeholders before it is endorsed by the three littoral States and the IMO,'' Teo Siong Seng, chairman of SSA, said in a statement.

Such a mechanism should, in the SSA's view, be consistent with the KL Statement issued last September and the United Nations Convention on Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) 1982.

He added that SSA members ''will not be receptive to any attempts that are aimed at seeking mandatory funding towards this cause as their ships calling at ports in the three littoral states are already paying port dues or light dues.''

He highlighted that such dues should be used to enhance safe navigation and environmental protection.

During the forum in Kuala Lumpur, the Nippon Foundation, a Japanese non-government aid donor, said a charge of one cent per metric tonne (mt) of cargo would raise $40 million annually.

The head of the foundation, Yohei Sasakawa, said the money could be used to improve navigation and safety in the strait.

''This is such a small amount that it would not impact freight rates but it would help alleviate the excessive burden born by the littoral states,'' he told a symposium on the Malacca Straits.

There have already been calls for countries and shipping companies that use the strait to give money to help finance safety and security, but so far Japan remains the main international donor.