Make us a party in AP Moller-Maersk case: Freight station owners' body to CCI

The Container Freight Station Association has pleaded with the Competition Commission of India (CCI) to make it an aggrieved party in a case, alleging abuse of dominance by Danish group AP Moller-Maersk in the container freight station market, mainly at JNPT in Mumbai.  

The association has filed an application for impleadment, which basically means suing a third party in a case which is already in progress.

The Indian Competition Review, a policy advisory body, had earlier this year recommended an anti-trust case against AP Moller- Maersk group for allegedly misusing dominating position in the JNPT in Mumbai to dictate prices to limit competition in container freight stations (CFS).

The group controls its CFS through its company, APM Terminals, which has 74 per cent stake in Gateway Terminals India, the biggest of the four container terminals operating at JNPT.

The advisory body had observed that Maersk Group does so by bundling services with some CFSs — either operated by the group or those with which it has tie-ups, forcing shipping lines to use these CFSs even if they are priced higher. CCI later took up the case.

In its impleadment application, the association alleged that due to the abuse of dominant position by the company in JNPT, “livelihood of hundreds of people is being affected”. They have also said in the application this abuse of dominant position was affecting 30 CFSs operating at the JNPT.

The association also charged that the APM Terminal that owns two CFSs at Nhava Sheva is coercing shipping lines to use their CFS by granting berthing access in their Nhava Sheva and the Pipava Terminal in Gujarat.

AP Moller Maersk Group has interests across the logistics supply chain, such as ports, container freight stations (CFS) and shipping.

GTI handled 1.86 million twenty foot equivalent units, or TEUs, in the year ended March 2016, or about 42 per cent of the 4.49 million TEUs loaded by all the four terminals at India’s top container port.

A TEU is the standard size of a container and a common measure of capacity in the container business. Maersk runs two of the 33 CFSs that service J.N. port. The 33 CFSs handles close to 1.2 to 1.5 million TEUs a year.

The rates charged by these CFSs with the exception of DBC Port Logistics Ltd are not regulated by the Tariff Authority for Major Ports (TAMP).

The DBC CFS is owned by J.N. port but given to a private firm on a long-term operation contract and hence regulated by TAMP.

The association has also represented to the Ministry of Shipping on the case.