© Khunaspix Dreamstime.
By Alex Lennane
Shippers are celebrating the news that Sri Lanka plans to ban box lines from collecting terminal handling charges – and India may do too. A court ruling in the 1990s prevented the Indian government from bringing in such a law, but shippers, who claim the charges can exceed 70-80% of the ocean freight cost, want to try again, arguing that the charge is already incorporated into the freight rate.