Maersk Pushes $250 West Med Surcharge Back to 7 October

Maersk has moved the start of a $250 per container peak-season surcharge on cargo from the West Mediterranean to the United States and Canada to 7 October 2026. The notice dated 7 September replaces an earlier one dated 4 September that had set a 5 October start and applied only to dry container types.

The revised charge is $250 for all 20-foot containers, for 40-foot and 45-foot high dry equipment and for 40-foot high-cube reefers, and remains in force until further notice. Widening it beyond dry boxes brings refrigerated cargo out of Mediterranean origins into the same tariff.

The origin scope is broad. It covers every port in the carrier's South West Europe and Central South Europe areas, a list that runs from Spain, France, Italy, Portugal and Greece through Croatia, Slovenia, Hungary, Slovakia, Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Albania to Malta, Cyprus and the North African ports of Morocco, Algeria and Tunisia.

The pricing date matters as much as the start date for shippers holding contracts. For non-spot bookings the applicable rate follows the price calculation date, which on trades regulated by the US Federal Maritime Commission is the container's last gate-in date and on other trades the scheduled departure date of the first water leg at booking confirmation. Spot bookings are priced against the estimated departure date of the first vessel at booking confirmation. A two-day shift is therefore not cosmetic: it moves which boxes fall on which side of the line.

A parallel move is already in the market. MSC has introduced a peak-season surcharge from the West Mediterranean, the Adriatic and Israel to the United States, Canada and Mexico from 1 October, set at $400 per 20-foot container and $600 per 40-foot container for both dry and reefer equipment, which is a materially higher level from an overlapping origin range and a week earlier.

This story is part of the Maritime Briefing of 12 September 2026.