Container Lines Recommend Plastic Scrap Rate Adjustment

Shipping lines in the Westbound Transpacific Stabilization Agreement have agreed on the need to raise freight rates on shipments of plastic scrap from the United States to Asia.

Effective October 1, 2004, WTSA has recommended an increase of US$100 per 40-foot container, and $80 per 20-foot container, on plastic scrap shipments from all U.S. origin points to all Asia destinations.

Plastic scrap has increasingly been used as a lower cost, environmentally friendly alternative or supplement to resins in making plastics goods, reducing both the non-biodegradable content of landfills and the output of petrochemical plants producing resins. Strict new health, safety and environmental certification rules for overseas exporters of scrap materials to China, however, are likely to require increased documentation, entry delays and costs for plastic scrap.

Effective September 1, China’s General Administration of Quality Supervision Inspection and Quarantine (AQSIQ), imposed new certification requirements in December 2003 under the PRC’s Import and Export Commodity Inspection Law, in order to more carefully monitor and regulate waste exports to China. The move followed reports of unprocessed household wastes being shipped to developing countries, under documentation describing shipments as recyclables for industrial manufacture.

WTSA carriers already agreed in June on a recommended tariff rule that clarifies liability for compliance with Chinese registration and certification requirements, so that a scrap shipment may be accepted for loading aboard ship.