Strange timing for hike in French company’s fees for shipping containers to Algeria

The announcement by the French global shipping company “CMA-CGM” to impose additional fees on containers of all goods to 4 national ports raises many questions, especially regarding the timing of its announcement, which immediately followed the government’s announcement of measures related to procedures for the rapid and effective processing of containers.
Returning to the new measures announced by the French shipping company CMA-CGM, which will come into effect as of Monday, September 9, 2024, they came in view of what it said was congestion in four Algerian ports: the capital Algiers, Oran, Skikda and Bejaia.
To tie things together, the announcement was published on the company’s official website on Friday, September 6, while the government only studied last Wednesday, September 4, various procedures and measures to ensure the effective and rapid processing of containers in national commercial ports.
The meeting, chaired by Prime Minister Nadir Arbaoui examined the implementation of the directives issued by President Abdelmadjid Tebboune at the Council of Ministers meeting on June 2, which ordered the government to ease pressure on ports, ensure efficient handling of containers and reduce the financial impact of long waiting periods for ships during waiting periods at the port.
According to what was issued by the government last Wednesday, the meeting examined the various measures taken in this regard, particularly with regard to digitizing procedures and strengthening coordination between the various parties involved in this process.
In this context, the Vice President of the Algerian Exporters Association, Ali Bey Nasri, believes that the French company CMA-CGM seemed to be acting alone, because it was supposed to negotiate with the Algerian side, especially the Ministry of Transport and the Bank of Algeria, before announcing these increases.
The spokesman explained to “Echorouk” that this measure could result in increases in the cost of imported final products shipped via container carriers belonging to this company, while containers shipped via ships of other companies will not result in an increase in the cost of products.
The latter also stressed that the Bank of Algeria must intervene in this matter, because the issue here is not related to amounts in dinars, but to financial balances in hard currency that are transferred abroad.
According to what was announced by the French company, the cost of one container will increase by 150 euros, equivalent to 36 thousand dinars per container at the informal exchange rate, and 21 thousand and 600 dinars at the official exchange rate of the national currency.
According to what was announced by the French company, the measure concerns all goods that are shipped, as it will be mandatory to pay 150 euros for each 20-foot container (6.096 meters-EPV), to be paid with the costs related to the shipping process.
This global shipping company has 9 offices in Algeria, in the capital (Bab Ezzouar), Annaba, Jijel (Jen Jen), Ghazaouet, Mostaganem, Oran, Setif, Skikda and Bejaia.
This company operates 4 shipping lines to Algeria, the first is related to the Western Mediterranean to Algeria, the second is the short Mediterranean line – RORO/Algeria, the third is the Turkey-Italy-France-Algeria line, and the fourth and last is the Malta-Sicily-Algeria line.