Maersk Line Plans Three 2011 Trans-Atlantic Rate Hikes

Maersk Line is notifying trans-Atlantic customers of three increases in freight rates the world's largest container ship operator is planning for 2011 on that trade lane.

Maersk is “pre-planning” increases of $300 per container, whether 20 or 40 foot, on April 1; $300 per container on July 1; and a third increase on Oct. 1 of an amount that will be determined by what happens in the market next year.

The size of the rate increases is approximate. “We might have to adjust them when we get closer to the specific dates, but these are our best indications at this stage,” said Soren Castbak, Maersk Line’s senior director of network and product for trans-Atlantic services.

By The Numbers: Europe-North America Westbound Container Trade.

The increases will apply to all cargo moving in both directions between ports in North America, North Europe, the Mediterranean and the Black Sea.

The move is similar to the three rate increases Maersk pre-announced in the fall of 2009 for 2010. “Many customers have come to us in meetings earlier this year and said ‘we would like to have some kind of guidance again for the following year,’ so they could include it in their budgeting,” Castbak said.

Castbak said Maersk will seek the increases to cover the costs of repositioning containers that have been left stranded on the North American side of the Atlantic by the imbalance in the trade and by the increases in the cost of chartering ships.

-- Contact Peter T. Leach at pleach@joc.com.