A commercial-sector lawmaker on Saturday said many companies in Hong Kong now had to compete for air cargo space to deliver goods on time amid a spike in fuel surcharges due to the ongoing Middle East conflict.

Speaking after a Commercial Radio programme, Jonathan Lamport said this applied especially to firms exporting high-value, short-shelf-life goods that had traditionally relied on sea passage via Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) states. The council comprises Arabian Peninsula countries, except Yemen.

He said small and medium enterprises, in particular, had no choice but to switch to air freight if they had already signed an export contract.

"So now it's not about how much they increase, it is, is there any space for those goods that they need to ship immediately, for example, pharmaceutical products, food products that can't wait. So those products need to go by air."

Lamport went on to say that, for those contracts yet to be signed, firms had to talk to their clients about shouldering additional costs resulting from higher jet fuel charges driven by the spike in oil prices.

Customers will have to bear the brunt of the increment, he added.

Transport-sector legislator Lothair Lam, who had also appeared on the programme, said marine insurance had surged by 10 times due to the outbreak of hostilities. He said shippers also had to dig deeper into their pockets for wages, as workers would now have to pass through high-risk regions.

As for the surge in diesel and petrol prices, Lam pointed out that local oil companies tended to raise pump prices quickly but reduce them slowly.

He said the government should step up monitoring to ensure that oil companies were transparent when it came to higher prices at the petrol pump.

The third lawmaker to appear on the programme, Perry Yiu, said the spike in airline fuel surcharges had made high-speed rail a more attractive alternative for people wanting to travel during the upcoming Easter holiday.




Edited by Robert Kemp