The disruption brought about by last Tuesday’s start of tit-for-tat extra port fees levied by the US and China has propelled shipping earnings to very high levels.
The cross-sector ClarkSea Index, a weighted average of tanker, bulk carrier, containership, and gas carrier earnings managed by Clarksons Research, rose above $30,000 a day on Friday for the first time since late 2022, increasing by 5% week-on-week to $30,461 a day and standing more than 50% above the 10-year trend.
Last week was a particularly strong one in the crude tanker market with gains across the segments. Average VLCC earnings rose 10% to $90,000 a day while average MR earnings jumped by 44% to $25,000 a day.
The other sector posting significant gains from the shipping spat between Washington and Beijing has been in containers with spot freight rates strengthening, led by general rate increases on the transpacific and support from blank sailings. The overall Shanghai Containerized Freight Index rose by 13% week-on-week to 1,310 points.
China officially started collecting special port fees of RMB400 ($56) per net ton from US-owned, operated, built, or flagged vessels last Tuesday but said Chinese-built ships will be exempted from the levies. Empty ships entering Chinese shipyards for repair have also been exempted from payment, in last-minute tweaks to the new ruling.
Beijing first announced the move 10 days ago in response to the US levying similar fees against Chinese-linked tonnage, something that also went into effect last Tuesday.
Analysts at Clarksons Research suggest 2% to 7% of world cargo tonnage – or 1% to 3% by fleet number – may now be impacted by fees if calling in China, levels that generally allow fee exposure to be managed by switching” deployment but enough to introduce some short-term disruption and create charter preferences and market inefficiencies, which Clarksons Research suggested in its latest weekly report might be “overall supportive”, especially in a tight market.
Over the weekend,
China’s minister of transport Liu Wei called on shipping companies and port operators worldwide to promote free trade in a “concerted effort” to combat “protectionism”.
“All the companies dealing with shipping businesses should work together to promote a fair, just and open environment and safeguard the common interests of global economic and trade development,” he said at the North Bund Summit, a shipping conference, on Sunday in Shanghai. “We will continue to uphold the principles of mutual understanding and shared benefits to overcome the challenges together with other countries, creating a new ecosystem for sustainable development in global shipping.”
