13 Container Lines Plan "Emergency Charge"
Members of the Transpacific Stabilization Agreement have adopted a voluntary guideline of $320 per 20-foot container from Jan. 15 until new contracts for the year come into effect, the group of container lines said in an e-mailed statement today. The charge for a 40-foot box is $400, it said.
Major transpacific carriers are estimated to lose $20 billion this year as the global recession damped demand for shipments, the group said. Container lines have parked vessels and slashed sailings in a bid to revive rates amid a glut of new vessels that were ordered during a trade boom that ended last year.
“Many shippers face the stress of an economy that is still a long way from recovery,” Ron Widdows, chairman of the group, said in the statement. “They will be left with some very tough choices that involve either moving even more aggressively to individually consolidate or reduce the number of services now offered, or incur further losses that in the longer term are simply not sustainable.”
The emergency revenue charge is an interim measure, distinct from a previously announced general rate increase of $800 per 40-foot container for West Coast port-to-port and local cargo, the statement said.
Members of the group include Maersk Line, China Shipping Container Lines Ltd., Cosco Container Lines Ltd., CMA CGM, Neptune Orient Lines Ltd.’s APL Ltd., Hapag-Lloyd AG, Hyundai Merchant Marine Co., Kawasaki Line Ltd., and NYK.
Source: Bloomberg
