Carriers Raise Panama Canal Surcharges as Gatun Lake Falls
CMA CGM lifts its charge 56 percent to $500 per TEU from 10 September
Water levels at Gatun Lake continue to fall, and the Panama Canal Authority has imposed stricter draft restrictions on large vessels, raising the cost of a transit. Major shipping lines have responded with significant surcharges on cargo moving through the canal to North America.
Effective 10 September, CMA CGM will raise its Panama Canal surcharge for cargo from the Far East to the US East Coast and Gulf of Mexico to $500 per TEU. That is a 56 percent increase on the previous rate of $320, adding $180 per TEU.
Hapag-Lloyd and MSC have also announced surcharges, with Hapag-Lloyd's taking effect from 15 August.
Draft restrictions work differently from slot restrictions. A vessel that cannot load to its marks either sails light, giving up revenue tonnes, or discharges cargo for overland movement. Either outcome raises the cost per unit carried, and surcharges are the mechanism through which carriers pass that cost to shippers.
The timing places the increases at the front of the peak season for eastbound transpacific cargo routed to the US East Coast, which is the trade with the least attractive alternative. Rerouting via Suez faces the Red Sea security position, and the Cape adds both distance and days.
For shippers the practical effect is that the landed cost of a box from Asia to the US East Coast now carries a canal component that changes on the carriers' notice rather than on a contract cycle. For the canal authority, the constraint remains hydrological, and the measures in force are defensive rather than commercial.
