Maersk raises emergency contingency surcharges, citing Strait of Hormuz risks

Maersk told customers on April 27 that safe transit through the Strait of Hormuz “cannot be assured” and said shippers should keep planning for higher costs and route changes. (maersk.com) The company said recent vessel seizures added to the uncertainty and that it is making “no changes in specific services” for now, even as it keeps a cautious operating posture. (maersk.com) Three days earlier, Maersk said transit through Hormuz “should be avoided” and expanded Gulf landbridge options while temporarily pausing selected landside bookings tied to the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Oman, Jeddah and Khor Fakkan. (maersk.com) (mykn.kuehne-nagel.com) That is the practical meaning of an emergency contingency surcharge: a carrier is pricing in detours, extra handling, insurance pressure and equipment imbalances before a box even moves. Maersk’s April advisories tied those costs to trade lanes linking the Indian Subcontinent, Gulf and Red Sea corridors with West Coast Latin America. (maersk.com 1) (maersk.com 2) The disruption is no longer limited to the Gulf. Bloomsbury Intelligence and Security Institute said on April 27 that renewed Red Sea insecurity since late February has forced rerouting, raised landed costs into Africa’s Indian Ocean ports and increased export costs for time-sensitive cargo. (bisi.org.uk) BISI said diversions around the Cape of Good Hope usually add more than 10 days to shipping time, echoing earlier United Nations Trade and Development analysis on African trade delays from Red Sea rerouting. (bisi.org.uk) (unctad.org) The human bottleneck is growing alongside the freight one. The Associated Press reported that about 20,000 seafarers on hundreds of vessels have been stuck in the Persian Gulf for weeks, unable to cross Hormuz. (abcnews.com) AP said only about 80 vessels passed through the strait in the week of April 13 to 19, down from roughly 130 or more transits a day before the war, while the United Nations says at least 10 seafarers have been killed. (abcnews.com) Kuehne+Nagel said 104 container vessels with a combined capacity of 349,303 twenty-foot equivalent units were trapped in the Persian Gulf as of April 27, and said the effective closure of Hormuz was also pushing up Panama Canal waiting times and auction costs. (mykn.kuehne-nagel.com) For cargo owners, the immediate question is less whether one surcharge goes up than whether contracts, inventory buffers and inland routings still work if the Gulf and Red Sea stay unstable into May. Maersk’s message was to expect variability in transit times, routing options and associated costs. (maersk.com)