Incentives offered to clear abandoned scrap shipments

The authorities at Cat Lai Port has offered an 80% discount of demurrage charges for scrap shipments which were brought to the port before December 31 last year and will be taken out by April 30.

The authorities at Cat Lai Port has offered an 80% discount of demurrage charges for scrap shipments which were brought to the port before December 31 last year and will be taken out by April 30.

  

Incentives offered to clear abandoned scrap shipments

The HCM City Customs Department confirmed that the discount was offered by Saigon New Port Company. The scrap backlogs that are being managed by Saigon New Port and other scrap shipments at Cat Lai Port, are causing localised congestion and badly affected the operation at the port.

As of March 20, there were 3,800 twenty-foot equivalent units (teus) of shipments left at Cat Lai Port.

According to Saigon New Port Company, new policies and directives from the authorities have cleared many problems and made it easier for customers to receive their shipments. In order to encourage firms to quickly clear scrap shipments from the port, Saigon New Port will offer an 80% discount of demurrage charges for shipments that were imported before December 31 and will be taken out by April 30.

Since late 2017, HCM City Customs Department has faced a huge shipment backlog at many ports, especially at Cat Lai Port. One of the reasons for the backlog is because China announced an import ban on 24 recyclable scrap materials since January 1, 2018.

Another reason is that firms didn't follow regulations and abandoned their shipments when they failed to get the certificate of environmental protection qualification. Moreover, there are also many problems with the regulations that haven't been addressed.

According to the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment, the certificate for importing scrap as raw materials for production will be given by the ministry or city and provincial departments of natural resources and environment.

However, in many cases, the provincial authorities only let the offices of natural resources and environment, under their departments of natural resources and environment, grant the certificates. The Customs Department said it caused them difficulties in monitoring the number of imported scrap shipments.