Author: GPSM

Airfreight Fuel Surcharge from Hong Kong:

Cathay Pacific Airways (CX) have advised that effective from 1st April, they will introduce a fuel surcharge of HKD 0.70/kg (approximately AUD 0.12/kg) for all freight moved on their services to all Australian destinations. The fuel charge will be based on the chargeable weight of each shipment.

Local Australian Airport Charges:

Airport Cargo terminal Operators (CTO’s) have announced an increase in the local handling charges effective from 3rd April 2017.

The costs will increase by AUD 0.01/kg and will be calculated on the chargeable weight of each shipment, this increase is the first one introduced in the last couple of years.

GPSM will be updating our costs structures to reflect the latest “out of pocket” cost increases.

Further to our below Newsflash distributed earlier this month, please note the start date for the new Port Infrastructure Charge for Sydney has now been delayed until 17th April 2017.

The deferred start date is a direct result of Industry Lobby Groups expressing their displeasure at the short notice of the implementation date initially given by DP World.

We shall keep you advised of further updates if and when same are received.

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All goods imported into Australia must be assigned a Customs value, even if they were provided free of charge. This includes gifts, bonus goods, samples, and promotional goods.

The most common method for valuing any import is to use the ” Transaction Value”, which is the price the importer actually paid ( or is going to pay ) for the goods. In the case of Free of charge goods we are not able to use Transaction Value for your import declaration.

In this case you must provide Customs “The price of identical goods sold for export to Australia” or similar goods value for goods exported to Australia.

Failing to provide this information will delay the release of your cargo at the barrier leading to potential additional storage costs.

Pro-Forma Invoices are not acceptable by Australian Border Force (ABF ), a Pro-Forma is not a demand for payment and may not provide sufficient evidence to determine the actual price paid for the goods. Importers should not rely on Pro-Forma documents for processing of customs entries, as they will not be acceptable to support statements made in customs declarations without further verification by ABF. The Australian border force has found that these documents are highly inaccurate in a significant number of cases.

This policy is also adopted regarding the use of Electronic invoices, some importers create an electronic invoice in order to establish a record of the value of goods, the ABF has found that they do not reflect important details of sales transactions Including the value of the goods, and as such are also unacceptable.

Acceptable commercial documents are:

Purchase order

Contact of sale

Order confirmation

Commercial invoice

Evidence of payment is :

Letter of credit

Bank Transfers

Receipts

Paypal

EFT

Credit card bank statements

The turmoil surrounding ocean freight rates from Hong Kong, China, Taiwan, Korea and Japan appears set to continue in 2017.

Following the rate reductions we negotiated for February 2017 shipment from the above areas, we have started receiving shipping line notices advising of increased rates effective from 1st March, 2017.

Per our earlier Newsletters, it is not uncommon to receive these notices, as under the terms of the Alliance agreement the lines are required by Law to advertise any increases in advance.

The increases being advised at present are USD 300.00/20ft container and USD 600.00/40ft container, this will be the maximum permitted but we would expect these increases will be mitigated according to market conditions. Further information will be advised as we near closer to the implementation date and we finalise our negotiations with the various lines.

Please note any substantial increases is expected to also lead to a rate increase on LCL traffic from above areas.

The rate variations have resulted the shipping lines suffering huge financial losses over the last few years and their confirmation that they are unable to sustain the low rate levels we have become accustomed to in non-peak periods. A number of factors has led to the decline in the industry, including the following:

The financial collapse of Hanjin Line in 2016.

The financial collapse of Great Southern Lines in 2016.

The merger between China Shipping Line and COSCO Line in 2016.

The takeover of Hamburg-SUD Line in 2017 by Maersk Line.

The merging of NYK, K Line and OML Lines in April 2017.

And more recently the announced Merger between Hapag Lloyd and United Arab Agencies expected in the new couple of months.

Do you import goods listed in the Dumping commodity schedule, if so you may be subject to paying dumping Duty.
Please take a moment to read the schedule and contact our office to discuss if any of these measures will
impact on the cargo you import.

Dumping Commodity Registers

Current measures are listed by commodity. Linked to each commodity is the dumping commodity register (DCR) which provides information when importing goods subject to measures.

DCRs notify the outcomes of finalised investigations and should be read in conjunction with any relevant current investigations, such as reviews and inquiries. Refer to the Cases page to review current cases by commodity.

Commodity	Country(ies) of export	Tariff Classification
2,4-Dichlorophenoxyacetic acid (2,4-D) (PDF 456KB)	China	2918.99.00 3808.93.00
A4 Copy Paper (PDF 169KB)	Brazil, China, Indonesia and Thailand	4802.56.10
Aluminium Extrusions (PDF 216KB)	China, Vietnam and Malaysia	7604.10.00 7604.21.00 7604.29.00 7608.10.00 7608.20.00 7610.10.00 7610.90.00
Aluminium Road Wheels (PDF 194KB)	China	8708.70.91 8708.70.99 8716.90.00
Aluminium Zinc Coated Steel (PDF 539KB)	China and Korea	7210.61.00
Ammonium Nitrate (PDF 148KB)	Russia and Russia via Estonia	3102.30.00
Chrome Bars (PDF 165KB)	Romania	7215.90.00 7215.50.90 7228.30.10 7228.60.10 7228.60.90
Clear Float Glass (PDF 173KB)	China, Indonesia and Thailand	7005.29.00
Currants, Processed Dried (PDF 197KB)	Greece	0806.20.00
Deep Drawn Stainless Steel Sinks (PDF 215KB)	China	7324.10.00
Grinding Balls (PDF 495KB)	China	7325.91.00 7326.11.00 7326.90.90
Hollow Structural Sections (PDF 252KB)	China, Korea, Malaysia and Taiwan	7306.30.00 7306.61.00 7306.69.00
Hollow Structural Sections (PDF 331KB)	Thailand	7306.30.00 7306.50.00 7306.61.00 7306.69.00 7306.90.00
Hot Rolled Coil Steel (PDF 436KB)	Japan, Korea, Malaysia and Taiwan	7208.25.00 7208.26.00 7208.27.00 7208.36.00 7208.37.00 7208.38.007208.39.00 7208.53.00 7208.54.00 7208.90.00 7211.14.00 7211.19.00
Hot Rolled Plate Steel (PDF 392KB)	China, Indonesia, Japan, and Korea	7208.40.00 7208.51.00 7208.52.00 7225.40.00
Hot Rolled Structural Steel Sections (PDF 422KB)	Japan, Korea, Taiwan and Thailand	7216.31.00 7216.32.00 7216.33.00 7216.40.00 7228.70.00
Pineapple Fruit – Consumer & FSI (PDF 209KB)	Philippines and Thailand	2008.20.00
Power Transformers (PDF 158KB)	Indonesia, Taiwan, Thailand	8504.22.00 8504.23.00
Quenched and Tempered Steel Plate (PDF 155KB)	Finland, Japan and Sweden	7225.40.00 7225.99.00
Resealable Can End Closures (PDF 159KB)	India, Malaysia, the Philippines and Singapore	8309.90.00
Rod in Coil (PDF 177KB)	Taiwan and China	7213.91.00 7227.90.90
Silicon Metal (PDF 189KB)	China	2804.69.00
Steel Reinforcing Bar (PDF 440KB)	Korea, Singapore, Spain, Taiwan and China	7214.20.00 7228.30.90 7213.10.00 7227.90.90 7227.90.10 7228.30.10 7228.60.10
Tomatoes, Prepared or Preserved (PDF 367KB)	Italy	2002.10.00
Wind Towers (PDF 189KB)	China, Korea	7308.20.00 7308.90.00 8502.31.10
Zinc Coated (Galvanised) Steel (PDF 667KB)	China, Korea and Taiwan	7210.49.00 7212.30.00 7225.92.00 7226.99.00

We wish to bring to your attention important key elements of Certificates of origin issued form China. The following is a list that you need to make your suppliers aware could invalidate Certificates issued rendering it unacceptable for customs clearance purposes requiring the payment of import duty.

The HS code in section 9 must be to 6 digits.

There must be a HS code for all items on commercial invoice you cannot group all items under one HS code.

If you are importing machinery you must have one HS code for that and any spare parts must be listed under their own HS code.

The origin criterion in section 10 you must ensure that your supplier has used the correct Rule of origin i.e.: WO , WP or PSR

There must be a numerical link in section 12

If there is a third party billing , the details must be provided in section 5 remarks column providing the invoice number or Purchase order number for goods shipped.

Could you please forward this onto all your suppliers and ensure that they comply with these conditions on order to have a valid Certificate of origin

Ocean Freight Rates from Far East Asia:

GPSM are pleased to advise all clients that we have negotiated reduced FCL rates for February 2017 shipments from Taiwan, Korea, China and Hong Kong.

As all will be aware the rates had remained at quite high levels leading up to the earlier than usual Chinese New Year period. It is expected that traffic volumes will reduce in February as many factories will take some time to gear-up again for production after the holiday close-down.

The updated rates have been added to our web rate portal and are available on “Freight Calculator” or View Rates modules.

Please also be aware that we have starting receiving advices from shipping lines that they intend to increase rates again from 1st March 2017, this is a standard procedure to ensure they are covered for regulatory rate filing 30 days in advance of implementation date, they are quoting increases of USD 300.00/20ft and USD 600.00/40ft container, however it is generally the market that will determine the increment closer to the effective date.

GPSM will keep all clients advised of further developments in due course.

Trucking Detention Rates in Brisbane, Melbourne, Adelaide and Fremantle:

Trucking companies in above listed cities have advised of an increase in waiting time charges once the free allowance time period has expired.

Effective from 1st February, the rates will increase by $ 10.00 per truck hour for both standard and side-loader trailers deliveries. The detention rates have remained fixed for the past 5 years without any increases in this period.

As all deliveries in Sydney are handled by GPSM own trucking fleet, we are pleased to advise that current detention rates will remain unchanged for all Sydney FCL deliveries.