Leading lines will from today (June 1) introduce blanket new Emergency Bunker Surcharges (EBS) in response to rising fuel costs.
Already, some shipping lines including CMA CGM and Maersk will start charging an EBS of between $55-60 per TEU, rising to $85-80 per TEU for reefers, from the start of June. In most cases the surcharges will be applied across service networks, although there are exceptions by line and by jurisdiction.
Analysis by digital container freight platform Freightos revealed that on some trades the addition of the EBS to shipper costs would constitute a major hike, whereas elsewhere it would be relatively marginal.
Dr Zvi Schreiber, CEO of Freightos, said the EBS was “a big deal”, noting that Maersk’s $60/TEU and $120/FEU EBS on North American to Europe trades where 40’ prices are currently around $265 per FEU would result in a 45% price increase to $385 per FEU post-surcharge, putting prices at a 52-week high with the exception of two weeks in October.
By contrast, on services from Europe to America where prices are more competitive, Freightos said a baseline rate of $1,445 per FEU would increase just 8.3% to $1,565 per FEU post-surcharge.
“The good news is that it's still incredibly cheap – shipping a 40’ container from the US to Europe and back costs about the same as storing those goods at an Amazon FBA fulfilment centre for a month,” he added.
While some shippers may have negotiated EBS contingencies into contracts with lines, others will face large new bills, according to Freightos.
“Given the cut-throat atmosphere created by over-capacity, enterprise shippers have the edge in negotiations and may be able to avoid paying the emergency bunker surcharges,” a spokesman told Lloyd’s Loading List.
“This is another reminder how the freight industry's aversion to dynamic capacity management, index-linked pricing and enforceable contracts creates major business issues rare in more advanced industries.
“As a result, this will get resolved manually through thousands of phone calls and meetings, shipper by shipper.”
The new surcharges by lines come in response to rising fuel costs which hit liner profits in the first quarter. Announcing its new EBS, Maersk, for example, said bunker prices in Europe had now reached their highest level since 2014. “The increase is more than 20% compared to the beginning of the year and this unexpected development means it is no longer possible for us to recover bunker costs through the standard bunker adjustment factors,” the company said in a notice to customers.
Maersk said the EBS will be periodically assessed and adjusted as bunker prices rise and fall.
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