Since late February, ocean carriers have sent weekly announcements preparing shippers for pending transpacific general rate increases (GRIs) that did not come to fruition—until now. Many steamship lines have implemented GRIs for trade lanes from Asia and the sub-continent of India to the US effective April 9, 2015.

GRI charges vary widely by carrier for moves to the US East and West Coasts. US West Coast GRIs range from $240-$480 for full container load (FCL) moves. Fewer carriers have announced GRIs applicable to transpacific cargo moving to the US East Coast, but those announced have ranged from $40-$350. Additionally, EMC and OOCL have announced plans to implement transpacific GRIs to Canada beginning May 1, 2015. Deringer anticipates that other carriers will also assess GRIs to Canada if EMC and OOCL fulfill their intentions.

After months of worsening congestion, the ports of Los Angeles (LA) and Long Beach (LB) expect that cargo velocity will return to normal by next month. Port-side cargo congestion resulted in slow-downs throughout the West Coast intermodal network; however, clean-up efforts have gone more smoothly than previously announced. Many companies chose to deviate from their normal routing by shipping to northwest Canadian ports or to the East Coast to avoid the West Coast pile-ups. The ports of LA and LB hope cargo traffic returns to their berths once the congestion clears.

Deringer will continue to monitor and report carriers’ surcharge assessments, as well as the West Coast congestion clean-up. Please send an email to marketing@anderinger.com with any questions.