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Asia-Europe air cargo space tightens as rates, fuel surcharges soar

Shippers of Asia-Europe air cargo are being hit with a double whammy of rapidly rising freight rates and soaring fuel surcharges as Middle East cargo gets rerouted, China picks up production after Lunar New Year and jet fuel prices double.

An estimated 30% of Asia-Europe air cargo is routed via the Middle East, and with options through the region severely constrained by the ongoing US-Iran war, a rush for Asia-Europe air cargo capacity is pushing up rates with hefty fuel surcharges rolled out on top.

While data from Freightos shows spot rates on China-Europe are up about 13% compared with last week, the rates from South Asia to Europe have increased 82% since before the war started. The Baltic Air Index had Singapore outbound rates up 47.6% last week compared with the previous week as Middle East airspace closures drove diversions from Gulf hubs to Asian gateways, tightening capacity.

Judah Levine, head of research at Freightos, said rates climbed sharply following the outbreak of war and the airspace closures, but in the last few days prices have leveled off on many lanes.

“That may reflect some capacity recovery by Emirates, as well as Etihad, or the addition of direct Asia-Europe capacity by European airlines and carriers from the Far East,” he said.

Several freighter operators and integrators have repositioned capacity to serve growing demand on Asia-Europe markets, but a protracted regional conflict could see rates climb even higher.

“If this continues, we will see increases of 100% to 200% on the short-term market,” Van de Wouw noted. “In fact, I am picking up anecdotal evidence that this is already happening in selected markets.”

Fuel surcharges on the rise

Airlines are reviewing their fuel surcharges weekly instead of every month as the war-driven spike in prices piles additional cost on top of what is already a significant portion of a carrier’s expenses.

Cathay Pacific’s cargo fuel surcharge will increase from HK$3.20 ($0.41)/kg on March 19 to HK$12.9 ($1.65)/kg from March 20. Lufthansa Cargo raised its air freight surcharge from €0.85 ($0.97)/kg to €1.20 ($1.27)/kg, effective March 16, while IAG Cargo has hedged more than 60% of its fuel for 2026 and has not announced any new fuel surcharge.

Jet fuel typically accounts for 20% to 30% of an airline’s total cost base, and with international carriers forced to fly longer distances to avoid Middle East conflict zones with reduced payloads, those costs are mounting fast.

Maersk told customers in an advisory Friday that its fuel surcharges will be reviewed on a weekly basis and adjusted in line with developments in aviation fuel prices, based on established market indexes. For contract renewals where no fuel surcharge mechanism is in place, Maersk has proposed that 15% of the rate is allocated to fuel.

Demand is also growing for multimodal alternatives, with road freight being used to move cargo from Asia to Europe and between transport hubs in the Middle East as an alternative to air.

Details please refer to the JOC news.

Source: JOC

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As war rages, multimodal demand surges on Asia-Europe landbridge

Major ocean carriers are offering land-based solutions for cargo going to and from the war-hit Persian Gulf, with the only ocean entry point via the Strait of Hormuz effectively closed to shipping.

Maersk is delivering Gulf-bound cargo to ports in the region for onward transport by another mode.

“We are using Salalah [Oman] and Khor Fakkan [UAE] for cargo that comes from the east and are securing trucking capacity to take it into the Gulf,” said Maersk CCO Karsten Kildahl. “For cargo that comes from Europe, we focus mainly on Jeddah [on the Red Sea] and are deploying trucks to take the cargo 1,500 km across the Arabian Peninsula through the desert.”

Mediterranean Shipping Co. is using its Asia-Mediterranean Dragon and Jade services to move cargo inland to the Persian Gulf via King Abdullah and Jeddah ports in Saudi Arabia. Key inland destinations in the Gulf include Damman, Riyadh, Jubail, Bahrain, Kuwait, Hamad, Jebel Ali and Abu Dhabi.

CMA CGM has reopened its export bookings with immediate effect from Iraq, Kuwait, Qatar, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia and the UAE, and is deploying multimodal solutions around feeder ships and trucking.

Options include carrier haulage from Iraq, Kuwait, Qatar and Bahrain via bonded landbridge to Sohar in Oman. From the UAE, solutions are CMA CGM land bridge to Sohar and trucks from Iraq, Kuwait, Qatar, Bahrain and Dammam via bonded landbridge across Saudia Arabia to Jeddah.

In general for Asia-Europe needs, DHL Global Forwarding said customer enquiries for both road and rail solutions “have risen notably” as reliability improves and shippers look for alternatives to higher cost air freight.

“To address these needs, DHL Global Forwarding is working continuously on more alternative and multimodal transport concepts that further strengthen connectivity between Asia and Europe,” a DHL spokesperson said, declining to provide volume figures.

Rising demand for Asia-Europe land transport

Forwarders are reporting rising demand for road and rail transport from Asia to Europe as transit times and reliability improve and cross-border procedures become more predictable.

Transit times for road from China to Europe are between 12 and 19 days, while rail freight transits are 10 to 25 days. Rates from Chinese terminals to European terminals are volatile and vary from week to week, influenced by demand, bottlenecks on the Poland-Belarus border, and disruption in ocean shipping.

An automotive shipper based in Europe said trucking solutions out of Asia had matured and currently offered better pricing than in the past.

Details please refer to the JOC news.

Source: JOC

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Carriers seek to offload stranded Asia-Middle East containers at Indian ports

An estimated 100,000 TEUs of Far East-originated cargo that has become stranded en route to the Middle East is set to land across Indian ports as ocean carriers divert from the war zone, market sources in India say.

All major long-haul liners are seeking temporary supply chain asylum at Indian docks to offload containers that departed ports in China and Southeast Asia in recent days, according to local industry sources who spoke with the Journal of Commerce.

Representatives from Maersk, CMA CGM, Hapag-Lloyd, Ocean Network Express, and Cosco Shipping are already in discussions with authorities at the Indian West Coast ports of Nhava Sheva, Mundra, Pipavav and Kandla to strike yard space deals for the storage of diverted loads, the sources said.

With a planned rerouting count of approximately 40,000 TEUs, Maersk is also considering Gangavaram Port on India’s southern East Coast as an additional discharge point, the sources added.

Maersk could not be reached for comment.

Carriers at Nhava Sheva are primarily engaging with PSA International’s flagship Bharat Mumbai Container Terminals (BMCT), which now has measurable spare cargo-handling space following the 2025 terminal expansions that doubled annual throughput capacity to 4.8 million TEUs.

BMCT has already handled a few ships diverted to Nhava Sheva to drop boxes, including Hapag-Lloyd’s 24,000-TEU Damietta Express, while terminal berthing data updated Thursday points to a lineup of nine ad-hoc calls through March 19. The terminal can stack up to 25,000 TEUs on dock, with capacity for 3,000 reefer plug-ins for refrigerated cargo, without causing major operational pressure on the quayside, sources noted.

Port and customs authorities in Nhava Sheva are collaborating to identify and allocate dedicated extra yard space off the dock in line with recent government directives to ease Middle East supply chain pain points.

Mediterranean Shipping Co. is already a significant regional transshipment player at Mundra and Vizhinjam in the south, riding on its strategic partnerships with Adani Ports, and there are no indications the carrier will stop using those ports to handle stranded cargo.

Details please refer to the JOC news.

Source: JOC

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CBP lays out initial tariff refund plan that requires ‘minimal’ work from importers

US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) will need 45 days to set up the process for importers to begin receiving refunds for tariffs charged under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA). But those shippers will not have to sue the administration for relief, according to a declaration filed with US Court of International Trade (CIT).

CIT earlier in the week ordered CBP to immediately refund the estimated $166 billion in IEEPA tariffs paid by shippers before the US Supreme Court ruled President Donald Trump did not have the authority to impose them. Refund payments will also include interest, which would cost the US government an additional $23 million for each day that passes prior to payment, according to an estimate from the CATO Institute.

However, because “existing administrative procedures and technology are not well-suited to a task of this scale,” it would have taken more than 4 million hours for agency workers to manually examine shipment documentation to determine refund amounts, CBP said in the filing.

Crucially, the process being set up by CBP “would spare the hundreds of thousands of small businesses who are owed refunds from having to litigate to obtain them,” Neil Bradley, executive vice president and chief policy officer of the US Chamber of Commerce, said in a statement Friday. As of March 4, more than 2,000 importers had already filed lawsuits with CIT seeking refunds since the Feb. 20 Supreme Court ruling.

Shippers would receive the refund as a single payment, regardless of how many shipments or different cargoes they imported, according to the filing. CBP estimates there are more than 330,000 importers eligible for refunds on more than 53 million customs entries.

Details please refer to the JOC news.

Source: JOC

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Gemini partners unveil revamp of some Asia services to Europe, Med

Gemini Cooperation partners Maersk and Hapag-Lloyd on Friday announced a revamp of some Asia-Europe and Mediterranean alliance services, with extra port calls and larger ships, mainly beginning in April.

Five services are covered by the adjustments, which are being made to give “stronger market coverage and faster products on key Asia-North Europe and Mediterranean trades,” Hapag-Lloyd said in an advisory.

The most significant change on Asia-Europe services has been made on the AE3/NE3 loop, which will see the introduction of a Baltic rotation with calls at Aarhus (Denmark) and Gothenburg (Sweden), significantly enhancing market coverage in that region.

Southampton will become the final European outbound call to Asia, strengthening UK export flows, while Spain’s Algeciras will be dropped from the rotation, the carriers said.

In Asia, the service will call at Shenzhen’s Yantian port, “improving optionality for customers favoring Pearl River Delta connectivity,” Hapag-Lloyd said.

While the service will continue to start from Shanghai, the call at Ningbo has been relinquished.

The new rotation is: Shanghai, Yantian, Tanjung Pelepas (Malaysia), London Gateway, Aarhus, Gothenburg, Rotterdam, Southampton, and Singapore.

The Gemini partners confirmed that Antwerp would be added to the AE1/NE2 service, but the loop would no longer call at APM Terminals TC1 facility in Tangier. The call at Tanger Alliance TC3 terminal will continue.

The Antwerp call, initially announced by the carriers in an advisory earlier this month, will expand the “hinterland reach and improving access to key Benelux and European cargo flows,” Hapag-Lloyd said Friday.

The first westbound sailing will be made by the 23,664-TEU Hamburg Express that will depart Shanghai on March 6 and call Antwerp on April 21. The revised rotation is: Shanghai, Yantian, Tanjung Pelepas, Rotterdam, Hamburg, Antwerp, London Gateway, Tangier (TC3), and Singapore.

Hapag-Lloyd said the NE4/AE4 loop will revert to its previous rotation without the Baltic loop, which is now covered by the NE3. “This creates one of the fastest, direct Ningbo-Germany connections in the market, responding to strong customer demand,” the carrier said.

Consequently, Maersk said calls will be added at Ningbo and Algeciras, but Yantian will be dropped.

The full loop comprises Qingdao, Ningbo, Tanjung Pelepas, London Gateway, Bremerhaven and Hamburg in Germany, Rotterdam, Algeciras, and Tanjung Pelepas.

Details please refer to the JOC news.

Source: JOC

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Almost 40 transpacific sailings set to be blanked in next fortnight

Close to 40 transpacific services are set to be blanked over the next fortnight, with more to come in what is looking like an absolute near-term bloodbath on the lane.

Indeed, the port of LA last month reported a 12% year-on-year decline in processed volumes.

With Cosco having blanked all three of its standalone West Coast services, Linerlytica is reporting a total of 37 blankings across the major networks between weeks eight and nine, and a further 19 scrubbed over the course of March.

Port of LA executive director Gene Seroka said January imports landed at 491,000 container units, down 13% from last year’s high, and the consumer confidence index at its lowest point in 11 years.

“Everyone from Wall Street to Main Street to my street is paying attention. On the export side, we handled 100,000 teu, an 8% drop year over year – our lowest monthly output in almost three years.”

However, there near-term struggle was expected to ease, with Linerylytica and Mr Seroka expecting a uptick. The analysis suggested capacity will swing back up quickly in March, with additional capacity likely to be added from the end of April onwards.

This additional capacity will come in part from the Premier Alliance and Wan Hai, which will introduce two new US west coast services.

And Mr Seroka indicated that cargo, while down year on year, was looking better than “weak”, noting: “Purchase orders are not being cancelled; this is something we’ve witnessed in other years that were far bumpier from an economic output standpoint.

“Furthermore, I watch the purchase orders that go out – these go six months in advance to the factories in Asia – and right now those purchase orders are looking stable. This is a good sign.”

And Mr Seroka suggested that volumes this year would likely sit “at or near” last year’s levels, pointing out that he had kept in mind that this was compared with the “v-shaped” 2023 volumes, when importers were scrambling to get cargo in ahead of tariffs.

Looking at total throughput, he also pointed out that January’s result was “only” 2% off the California gateway’s three-year average.

There are those that would challenge the upbeat tone of the port director, as Linerlytica has indicated US consumer confidence was very definitely trending downwards.

It wrote in its weekly market update: “Growth in US consumer spending on goods is trending downwards, and for container shipping it is noteworthy that furniture spending growth is now negative.”

Source: Theloadstar

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Panama Ports seeks ‘extensive damages’ after terminal concessions canceled

Panama Ports Company (PPC) is seeking “extensive damages” after launching arbitration proceedings against the government of Panama following the decision of the country’s Supreme Court last week to void the company’s concessions to operate the Cristobal and Balboa ports. PPC had held the concessions for 28 years.

The port company, 90% controlled by Hutchison Port Holdings, a subsidiary of Hong Kong-listed conglomerate CK Hutchison, said Wednesday the Panamanian government has already started to take control of the terminals that bookend the Panama Canal even though the court decision has yet to be published and finalized.

“The steps taken by the state have included unexpected site visits and instructions that PPC provide unrestricted access to physical, commercial, and intellectual property and information, as well as to employees, on the basis that the state is systematizing and executing a port transition plan through coordinated actions of state authorities,” PPC said in a statement.

APM Terminals (AMPT), which was appointed by the Panama Maritime Authority as interim administrator of the two terminals a day after the court’s decision, would not comment on whether it had taken part in the site visits or other actions following the court ruling.

“At this moment, we have no further comments to share other than what we have released on our website,” an APMT spokesperson said. “For any next steps we refer to the relevant authorities in Panama.”

CK Hutchison on Wednesday said it “continues to consult with its legal counsel and reserves all rights, including recourse to additional national and international legal proceedings.”

Details please refer to the JOC news.

Source: JOC

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Traffic through Suez remains significantly lower than in 2023

100 days after the latest attack in the Red Sea, shipping continues to stay away in large numbers. But one segment has returned to a greater extent, according to a new analysis.

On Sept. 29, the most recent attack took place on shipping in the Red Sea when the ship Minervagracht was attacked by the Yemeni Houthi movement.

Although it has now been 100 days, and even though the Houthi movement has declared a complete halt to its attacks on shipping, shipping companies are still hesitant to sail through the Red Sea and thus also the Suez Canal.

This is stated in a fresh analysis by the shipping organization Bimco, which compares the number of transits in the fourth quarter of 2025 with 2023, before the attacks began.

“Despite this, traffic through the Suez Canal has not increased significantly and in the first week of 2026 remained 60% below the corresponding week in 2023, before ships started diverting around the Cape of Good Hope,” writes Niels Rasmussen, chief shipping analyst at Bimco, in an update.

Since January 2024, the quarterly tonnage that has sailed through the Suez Canal has been between 51 and 64% lower than in 2023.

In 2025, transits were between 57 and 64% lower, according to Bimco, which also provides information on how traffic has been distributed across ship segments.

Product tankers sail through more frequently

In the dry cargo segment, transits were 55% lower, while capacity in the container segment had fallen by as much as 86% since 2023. Conversely, oil tanker transits were 32% lower, and for product tankers the decline was 19%.

Bimco estimates that product tankers have returned to the Red Sea and the Suez Canal to a greater extent in order to take advantage of rising freight rates. In 2024, the reduction for product tankers was 45% below the 2023 level.

Virtually all container ships have avoided the Red Sea since the attacks began. However, CMA CGM recently announced that two of its services will once again sail through the waters. CMA CGM is the only major shipping company to have sailed some of its ships through the Red Sea with French military escort throughout the period.

Maersk has also sailed its first ship through the Red Sea, but has not yet announced any further voyages. The shipping company has announced that it is moving towards a gradual return, provided that the security situation remains stable.

“A normalization of ship transits now appears more likely than at any point during the last two years, but it remains unknown if, or how fast, this may happen,” says Bimco’s Niels Rasmussen.

“A return to the Suez Canal would reduce shipping companies’ costs significantly but also hurt ship demand. A full normalization is estimated to reduce container ship demand by approximately 10%, while other sectors could see 2-3% reductions,” he adds.

Source: SHIPPINGWATCH

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Soft volumes to keep West Coast ports congestion-free in early 2026

The big picture: Container gateways on the US West Coast in 2025 were able to hold onto market share gained in 2024 as importers frontloading seasonal merchandise from Asia due to tariff uncertainties took advantage of transit times that are at least two weeks shorter than East Coast routings. West Coast gateways remained relatively free from congestion throughout the year, and those conditions are likely to continue given the weak import volumes forecast for the first quarter of 2026.

A look back: Similar to the wider trans-Pacific market, US West Coast ports benefited from tariff-related frontloading in the first half of 2025, but that growth turned to double-digit percentage declines in the fall. Amid the roller-coaster demand movements, the ports of Los Angeles, Long Beach, Oakland and the Northwest Seaport Alliance of Seattle and Tacoma handled 59.2% of US imports from Asia through November, exactly the same share as in the first 11 months of 2024, according to PIERS, a Journal of Commerce sister product within S&P Global.

To handle the somewhat volatile swings in volumes — a record 1.2 million TEUs of laden imports crossed West Coast terminal docks in July, for example — port stakeholders continued to incorporate the lessons they learned during the COVID-19 pandemic. Improved shipment forecasts and information sharing among carriers, marine terminals, truckers, chassis providers, railroads and warehouses resulted in lower truck turn and container dwell times at the marine terminals and fluid operations at warehouses and inland rail terminals.

A look ahead: Cargo volumes at West Coast ports in 2026 will likely be impacted by macroeconomic forces in the US. With inflation increasing, consumer confidence declining and unemployment on the rise, US imports from Asia are not expected to see the typical pre-Lunar New Year surge in January and February. And unless some clarity and predictability in the Trump administration’s tariff policies are forthcoming, retailers are likely to be conservative in ordering spring and summer merchandise, extending year-over-year declines in West Coast imports through the first half of 2026.

The next inflection: If container lines return to the Suez Canal, East and Gulf coast ports could regain some of the market share they lost to the West Coast in the past two years.

Source: JOC

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Port of Vancouver Operations Remain Fluid Amid BC Atmospheric Rivers and Highway Closures

To Port of Vancouver’s valued customers and stakeholders, 

A series of atmospheric rivers is bringing heavy rainfall to coastal areas in British Columbia. The Province of BC’s Ministry of Transportation and Transit has issued a travel advisory for areas in the Fraser Valley and has closed major highways between the Lower Mainland and the Interior due to flooding, falling rock and debris, and high avalanche hazards. The Ministry is assessing highways and related infrastructure.  

Terminal and rail operations at the Port of Vancouver remain fluid and operational. While CN and CPKC remain unaffected at this time, BNSF Railway has announced that some BNSF subdivisions are out of service due to weather-related issues. For more information, please visit BNSF’s website here.  

Additional precipitation is expected to continue in the region over the coming days. We are working closely with our terminal operators, railways, and all levels of government to monitor conditions and will provide updates as they become available.  

For the most up-to-date information on road conditions and road closures, please visit DriveBC. 

Resources

  • Port performance insights: access live video feeds from around the port and updates on import rail performance, truck terminal turn times, container vessel on-time performance, and vessel traffic at anchor/berth through the port authority’s website (Performance Insights)
  • PortVan eHub app: access real-time insights into Port of Vancouver operations via the port authority’s mobile app eHub.  Download from the port authority’s website (eHub) or through the App Store (search for “PortVan eHub” or “Port of Vancouver”)
  • The Ministry of Transportation and Transit travel advisory  

Source: Port of Vancouver