‘ASOCELPA rejects mooring fee hike and calls for assessing the service’s real costs
The employers’ association of ship agents says the increase of +72% in labor costs is disproportionate, and warns that the service provider is in strong financial health, reporting a 15% net profit in 2025.
The Association of Ship Agents and Stowers of Las Palmas (ASOCELPA) is finalizing its submissions to the Proposed Extraordinary Review of the Maximum Tariffs for the Mooring and Unmooring Port Service at Las Palmas Port. The organization argues that the proposal breaks the port’s tariff stability and imposes an unjustified extra cost on the port community.
ASOCELPA bases its position on the following key points:
Direct impact on the shopping basket and the Canary Islands economy
In an island territory such as the Canary Islands, where the economy is dependent on maritime transport, any surcharge for port services is passed along the chain to global logistics. Raising the mooring fee by 30% will increase the cost of vessel operations, a charge that will ultimately be passed on directly in the final prices of the products consumed.
Perverse regulatory methodology
The review is designed to ensure the service provider’s margin. ASOCELPA denounces that the review of costs is built in reverse to the regulatory logic of a monopolized regulated service. Rather than protecting users from excessive prices through strict control of efficient and audited costs, the methodology accepted by the Port Authority first allows a new sizing of resources proposed by the provider, then builds a future income statement based on declared, non-audited costs, and finally calculates the maximum tariffs solely to ensure SEPCAN an intended business margin.
This practice turns the maximum tariff into an instrument to guarantee the provider’s economic position, shielding its profitability at the expense of the user in a market where the user cannot turn to another supplier. It is inconsistent to claim an intention to guarantee a 10% margin through an extraordinary tariff increase when the provider already reported a 14.88% net profit in 2025 under the current tariffs.
It also notes that the proposal would increase Personnel Expenses to 4.67 million euros from 2.71 million euros in the 2021 contract terms, which represents an increase of +71.99%. In addition, the financial model calculates the ordinary base tariff based on the total resources (20 mooring workers and 7 vehicles), instead of limiting it to the minimum resources required under the modification proposal (16 mooring workers and 4 vehicles). ASOCELPA argues that the tariff must be calculated on mandatory costs.
It further points out that other providers of the port’s technical-nautical services have not requested changes to their contract terms. The Port Authority’s Resources Report itself acknowledges that the Pilotage Service has reinforced its workforce, going from 15 to 18 pilots to handle the increase in traffic, which underscores the lack of justification for changing mooring tariffs.
Inopportune timing during the height of the summer season
The employers’ association criticizes that the Port Authority has put out for public information a file of such economic significance in mid-August. The rush makes it harder for the port community to carry out rigorous analysis of a proposed increase that lacks technical and economic justification.
Penalizing users for the restructuring of accumulated tonnage
The Economic Study of the Port Authority unilaterally modifies the annual accumulated Gross Tonnage (GT) brackets, directly penalizing shipowners by obliging them to pay using more expensive tariff tables.
Unjustified consolidation of temporary traffic peaks
The APLP justifies the resizing of the service based on the increase in traffic recorded after the pandemic (2020) and on extraordinary deviations due to the geopolitical crisis in the Red Sea and the Strait of Hormuz. ASOCELPA stresses that costs arising strictly from temporary events cannot be consolidated into a permanent ordinary tariff.
Service provider’s Economic Report
Alongside these underlying arguments, ASOCELPA also states that it requested a copy of the submitted file, without having access to the required Economic Report of the service provider (SEPCAN), as required under the Law on Indexation Deregulation and RD 55/2017.
ASOCELPA expects the Las Palmas Port Authority to reconsider its approach and open a path for dialogue to reach agreement on a tariff framework that is proportional, transparent, and committed to the competitiveness of Las Palmas Port.
The entry Comunicado íntegro de Asocelpa por subida de tarifas de amarre en agosto de 2026 was first published on canarymaritime.com.
