A cargo fee meant to raise money for several infrastructure improvements was delayed for a third time under a new timeline adopted earlier this week by the Long Beach Board of Harbour Commissioners, Euclid Infotech reported.

The Los Angeles harbour commission will likely adopt the same plan, which calls for postponing collection of the infrastructure cargo fee to January 1, 2012, while giving officials nearly two more years to recalculate how much to charge.

Both ports adopted the fee two years ago, hoping to raise US$1.4 billion to pay for a series of projects, including the replacement of the Gerald Desmond and Commodore Schuyler F Heim bridges, along with improved roads, railways and grade separations by 2016.

When the fee was first adopted in 2008, plans called for collecting $15 for every loaded TEU entering or leaving terminals by truck or train beginning January 1, 2009.

The ongoing recession prompted port officials to cut the fee to $6 for each cargo container and delay collection to July 1, 2009.

The fee was deferred a second time last year, when port officials agreed to recalculate the amount and begin collection on July 1, 2010.

Now port officials hope to come up with a new amount by September 2011, then start collecting the fee by January 1, 2012.

Long Beach Harbor Commissioner Mike Walter said it costs shipping companies roughly $100 per day to transport cargo containers to the port, and noted that the $6 fee planned for last summer "strikes me as almost nothing in comparison."

"I personally don't happen to like fees," he said. "But this is a very, very small amount of money."

Source: http://www.cargonewsasia.com