VICTORIA International Container Terminal is increasing its landside charges, as well as its infrastructure surcharge.
The container terminal on Tuesday (4 April) issued a 60-day notice to industry announcing the increases.
On 1 July, VICT’s infrastructure surcharge will increase from $161.35 to $177.48 per full container.
And starting on 1 June, VICT is to introduce a VGM weight discrepancy fee of $200 per container. The charge is to apply to containers determined to have a weight variance of 1 tonne within the documented VGM.
There will also be a reefer temperature discrepancy fee of $75 per full container coming into effect on 1 June. This will apply to reefer containers that have a temperature variance greater than 3 degrees Celsius from the temperature provided to the terminal.
“Geopolitical events and a pandemic over the past 18 to 24 months have impacted the global economy on both the supply and demand side which has impacted inflation levels,” the company said in its notice.
Despite all efforts to contain and absorb some of the cost increases, VICT has been unable to avoid the increases in our operational input and lease cost which, without adjustment to some of our infrastructure related costs, would negatively impact the continued service levels that our customers expect from us.”
VICT said recent “hyper inflationary increase in the cost of power” were a significant contributor to its higher operating costs.
The terminal pointed out that it hand invested nearly $700 million in infrastructure and equipment and is in the middle of a $235-million expansion project.
“This increase in infrastructure will boost our vehicle booking system time slot offerings to the market by up to 30% per hour and will be operative during the 1st quarter 2024,” the company said in its announcement.
