Mainland-Taiwan rates must be filed with Shanghai Shipping Exchange

CHINA'S Ministry of Transportation has announced a new regulation requiring operators of cross-straits container shipping service to file their rates for the record, effective from March 1, Xinhua reports.

A senior official from the Ministry of Transportation said this will prevent cut-throat price undercutting competition such as "zero rates" and "negative rates."

According to the announcement, all container shipping service operators of all of the 29 mainland-Taiwan shipping lanes should report their rates for export shipments, including transshipments. Reported open price quotation will come into effect from the 30th day after being filed while the "consulted prices" will be effected 168 hours (seven days) after being filed.

Shanghai Shipping Exchange (SSE) is the authorised shipping rate filing agency. SSE will offer guidance for rates filing and technical support. It will also compile a list of rates and work out a cross-strait shipping rate index together with Xiamen Shipping Exchange.

Under the impact of world economic downturn, "zero rates" and "negative rates" occurred in the market during the latter part of 2011 and in early 2012. This has hurt the profit of cross-straits shipping service operators. Ministry of Transportation and related government authorities set up a task force to investigate into the situation and successfully steered the rates back onto a normal track finally.