US – ASIA – The discussion group which forms the Westbound Transpacific Stabilization Agreement (WTSA) have announced their guidance for rate charges to be levied on the US – Asian services from 1st December with some increases not taking effect until January. Although the rates are subject to negotiation by the individual members, meaning they do not infringe any antitrust regulations, all are agreed that a rate rise is essential to make the service viable.
The WTSA is made up of ten major container carriers including Hapag-Lloyd, Evergreen, K Line, NYK, Cosco, OOCL and APL. And all appear to be in agreement about the level of increase essential to maintain services. Full rate details can be seen here but basically they are $80 per TEU and $100 per FEU via Southern California (SOCal) ports and $120 and $150 respectively for other routes.
This is the second general rate increase recommended by the WTSA in the past three months. Rates from 1st September were already increased between $120 and $200 per container for general cargo and as then, this latest round of rises will be even higher for refrigerated - intermodal traffic. This proposed rise once again also applies to “exempt” cargo.
