With 11 days to go until its introduction, the US Trade Representative’s planned hike in port fees for Chinese-linked tonnage has been a near-constant in the shipping news this week.
Chinese premier Li Qiang signed a State Council decree over the weekend, which states that China will take necessary countermeasures against countries or regions that impose or support discriminatory bans, restrictions, or similar measures targeting Chinese operators, vessels, or crew engaged in international maritime transport and related services.
The US Trade Representative (USTR) is due to impose port fees from October 14.
The new US rules would see vessels owned or operated by a Chinese entity face a flat fee of $80 per net tonnage (nt) per voyage performed to the US. At the same time, non-Chinese operators of Chinese-built ships will be charged the higher amount of either $23 per nt or $154 per teu capacity. Both fees are imposed on a ship no more than five times a year.
Based on the current deployment, Alphaliner forecast this week that COSCO – including OOCL – remains the most threatened by the fee as its fleet would be subject to $1.53bn for 2026 of the aggregated $3.2bn due from the top 10 carriers should their fleet deployment remain unchanged next year
The opaqueness of the incoming legislation – combined with this week’s shutdown of the federal government in the US – has led some to argue that, like other negotiating tactics that the Donald Trump trade team has adopted this year, the October 14 deadline may well be extended, or even scrapped.
“Not everyone is convinced that the October 14 USTR port call fees on China-made vessels and operators will materialise, as the issue may be part of the ongoing US-China negotiations,” commented Judah Levine, head of research at Freightos, a box booking platform, in a recent note to clients.
The US port fees came up in some of the conversations at the recent Maritime CEO Forum held at the Fullerton Hotel in Singapore. This week’s Splash Wrap podcast provides listeners with the overarching themes from last week’s exclusive shipowner gathering.
