IAM members around the world will need to be responsive to cost fluctuations as wholesale diesel prices jumped more than 30% in the United States last week and the hostilities in the Middle East result in more emergency surcharges to freight costs.
Freightwaves reported that as the conflict enters another week have led to chaos at ports with shipping lines diverting, canceling, and suspending bookings. In Dubai, DP World briefly suspended operations at the container port of Jebel Ali after an aerial interception caused a fire there.
“Hapag-Lloyd and MSC suspended bookings out of Persian Gulf ports and from all origins to these ports – including Oman and United Arab Emirates ports on the Gulf of Oman side of the strait because of their proximity,” said Judah Levine, of ocean and air analyst Freightos. “CMA CGM stopped accepting all bookings to and from Persian Gulf ports only. Maersk suspended all new reefer bookings to the entire region, and bookings out of India to the gulf because of the short lead time,” added Levine.
CMA CGM introduced an emergency surcharge of $3,000 per forty-foot equivalent unit (FEU) for containers heading to the gulf, and other carriers are also applying fees for diverted bookings. Freightos rates for Shanghai to Jebel Ali spiked from $1,800 per 40-foot container on March 1 to more than $4,000 per FEU by March 3.