More shipper pain on the way as carriers levy new peak season surcharges

16/06/2026

Ocean carriers have continued their flurry of surcharge and rate increase announcements, which “continue to be the scourge of shippers’ lives”, according to James Hookham, director of the Global Shippers Forum. 

Danish shipping line Maersk today announced it was implementing a Peak Season Surcharge (PSS) for Far East Asia to North Europe and Mediterranean from 7 July of $750 per teu. From South Korea this will be applicable from 16 July. 

It also announced a Far East Asia to Southern Africa and Indian Ocean Islands PSS of $1,800 per teu from 1 July, along with yesterday’s notice of a PSS from Far East Asia to Middle East of $1,000 per 40ft, also for 1 July.  

French carrier CMA CGM joined its Danish counterpart in a flurry of PSS across today and yesterday. This includes a charge of between $350 and $850 per teu from China to West Africa, between $400 and $500 from China to East Africa from 21 June and $350-$550 from China to South Africa and Mozambique from 21 June.  

Alongside the PSS, CMA CGM also updated its FAK rates from the Indian Subcontinent to North Europe, the Mediterranean, North Africa, and Latin America, all effective 1 July. 

To North Europe and the Mediterranean this is $5,000 per teu, to North Africa $6,000, and to Latin America between $4,300-$6,150. 

Hapag-Lloyd also announced General Rate Increases (GRI) from Indian Subcontinent and Middle East to North America west coast of $2,100 and $1,500 to the east coast. 

James Hookham, director of the Global Shippers Forum recently told The Loadstar Podcast that surcharges “continue to be the scourge of shippers’ lives”.  

“They don’t want surcharges, they want solutions,” he stated. 

Referring to recent fuel surcharges, Mr Hookham said: “Not that we can do much about the situation now, but I think there is a need to look at this again, because I would suggest it’s one of the biggest factors in hindering productive relations between shippers and shipping lines going forward. 

“There’s obviously the huge disruption that’s taken place to trades in the Middle East… inevitably the hit on fuel prices has been passed on,” he acknowledged.  

But Mr Hookham highlighted that this was done “not just through the established bunker adjustment factors”, as would be expected. 

“We saw quite early on, within the first few weeks of the conflict, additional surcharges coming in for fuel prices… but it was difficult to understand how the shipping line had actually had to pay that price for fuel in the previous three or four days, and suddenly the shipper was being confronted with an increased cost, and that was across many trades. 

“Some of us had difficulty believing that they need to pay it quite so quickly that they needed to pass those surcharges on as quickly as they did,” he underscored.  

Today, Maersk also announced intermodal fuel fee updates for many regions of Europe, including Poland, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Belgium, Luxembourg and Netherlands from the period 22 June to 6 July. 

“Given the volatility of the current energy market, this surcharge will be review bi-weekly to account to account for evolving conditions,” it explained.  

For the UK, as per the advisory update shared by Port of Felixstowe, yesterday, Maersk announced it was decreasing its EFS from £5.38 to £4.17 per import laden container effective from 1 July.