The Sri Lanka Shippers Council
The Sri Lanka Shippers’ Council was established in March 1966 to protect and promote the interests of shippers. It was the first National Shippers’ Council to be set up in Asia and was formed on a request made in 1965 by the local Committee of the Ceylon/Continental Conference, and a subsequent request made by the Director of Commerce in January 1966, to the Ceylon Chamber of Commerce. The Sri Lanka Shippers’ Council is the apex body that represents the interest of the shippers.
The objective of the Council is to provide organized machinery for shippers to express their views and negotiate on their behalf with shipping lines, particularly Shipping Conferences, on matters such as freight rates, quality of service, and tariff conditions.
Membership of the Council consists of Chambers of Commerce, Trade Associations & individual organisations. Currently, the Council represents a large percentage of the import/export trade in the country through its broad based representation and membership of these trade Associations and individual Companies
The Council allows individual companies as Associate Members so that companies in the export/import trade could have access to the Council’s resources and expertise to resolve their shipping related problems.
The Sri Lanka Shippers’ Council is headed by an elected Chairman and assisted by Vice-Chairman who is also elected by the constituent members.
From the inception the activities of the Council have been mainly focused on maintaining freight rates at reasonable levels, prevention of arbitrary surcharge and ad hoc freight rate increases, settlement of trade disputes related to shipping and creating awareness of shipping related issues. The Council continues its activities focusing on the same issues but with more active involvement in all shipping related matters.
The Sri Lanka Shippers’ Council is also a founder member of the Association of Shippers’ Councils of Bangladesh, India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka (ASCOBIPS), founded in 1981 and the Asian Shippers’ Council, founded in 2004.
The Ceylon Chamber of Commerce provides secretarial services to the Council and also acts as the Secretariat.
