Fuel surcharges divide shippers and carriers

🛃 CAPE shrugs off glitches and brings refunds nearer

Figure of the week

15% The percentage of tariff refund requests via CAPE that were rejected by the system. The most common reasons for rejection included inconsistent or erroneous data or applying for refunds for non-IEEPA tariffs that were ineligible for refunds.

Quote of the week

“We also [told shippers] that whatever you give us in that emergency fuel surcharge because it’s in the rear, when the fuel price goes down, we will also give you back every ounce of money you paid us.” Stuart Sandlin, president of Hapag-Lloyd North America, addresses the contentious issue of fuel surcharges.

Fuel surcharges divide shippers and carriers

Shippers and ocean carrier executives were increasingly at odds as 2026-27 service contracts were finalized over bunker fuel surcharges . Overall, base contracts were at roughly comparable levels to 2025-26. But rising crude oil prices reflected in bunker surcharges, both parties reported wrangling over this issue. US shippers were shielded for longer from the surcharges than their European counterparts by FMC regulations forcing carriers to give 30 days’ notice for the charges. Now, that period has generally expired, it appears that the US is seeing the same kind of shipper-carrier disagreement that Europe started to report several weeks ago. In the run-up to US service contract finalization some shippers were complaining of carriers making the unilateral decision to review the standard bunker adjustment factors in service contracts every month. Traditional practice was to review every quarter. Customers are also objecting to contracts containing emergency bunker surcharges with no clause outlining when or if these surcharges would fall as oil prices drop. Carriers, for their part, complained that some customers were asking for service guarantees and timelines around bunker surcharges that were impossible to provide. They said that surcharges would inevitably change depending on geopolitical factors and the evolving situation in the Middle East. Industry insiders said that any shippers still in negotiations should pay close attention to how fuel surcharges were dealt with in any service contract. “The key for shippers is don’t just focus on the base service ,” one told joc.com.

More airlines pass on costs as impasse continues

North American air freight shippers are increasingly having to contend with fuel surcharges due to the Iran war . Fuel supply constraints and the high price of crude oil are continuing to affect the market, with United Airlines cargo arm the latest to implement a surcharge. The carrier said it would impose a “market disruption fee” on shipments as of May 1. This would cover domestic US shipments and freight departing from the Americas, Asia-Pacific and Europe, as well as other regions. Last week, Air Canada Cargo imposed its own “air freight carrier surcharge” due to the conflict in the Middle East. The airline said it would impose different surcharge levels according to whether the flight was short, medium or long haul. Among other airlines leveraging surcharges is Cathay Pacific Cargo. The Hong Kong-based freight arm of Cathay Pacific is revising surcharges every two weeks. However, its latest revisions slightly lowered surcharges as of May 1. ANA Cargo and Lufthansa Cargo have also been imposing surcharges. Despite stable demand, air cargo rates sharply increased in April and are now at their highest level since late 2022. Over the last week, the return of capacity to the market has seen spot rates from both Europe and China falling. Nevertheless, the ceasefire between the US and Iran is increasingly uneasy and talks appear to be at an impasse. Shippers can expect considerable volatility in coming weeks as a result .

CAPE shrugs off glitches and brings refunds nearer

The CBP’s CAPE portal for tariff refunds appears to have ironed out early glitches and plans to begin issuing refunds as early as next week . A court filing by US Customs and Border Protection said it expected to begin the refund process as soon as May 11. And given the time constraints behind the development of the system, it appears to be performing relatively well after early teething problems. CBP was given 45 days to build and launch the portal after the US Supreme Court overturned the Trump administration’s IEEPA tariffs. Several industry insiders praised CBP’s deployment of the system. Nick Richards, a partner at law firm Greenspoon Marder, said: “I was amazed at the speed with which customs put up this portal. So kudos to them.” The agency said it had processed and accepted around 21% of all entries that had been submitted so far. As of April 26, CBP had received 75,000 refund applications from US businesses. Around 15% of these had been rejected due to being improperly filed, said CBP official Brandon Lord. The main reasons for rejection were because applications contained incorrect information or concerned non-IEEPA tariffs that are ineligible for refunds. “Some claims require corrections to the original filings, and importers can address these issues and resubmit their claims,” said the agency. Some businesses had reported glitches when the portal opened on April 20. This could include messages saying the system was busy or problems with two-factor authentication. Others complained of long waits in receiving technical assistance. However, CBP said it had only suspended functionality for an 18-minute period on that day to optimize system resources. Some small businesses, however, reported that they were still having trouble finding where the errors lay in their applications. On the whole, however, CAPE has widely exceeded shippers’ expectations in a difficult year. Shippers will be aware, however, that tariffs may be here to stay in the longer term as the Trump administration is looking at ways of continuing its tariff policy indefinitely.

🤔 Did you know ?

A humanless big rig has completed a 230-mile delivery from Houston to Dallas on schedule, according to operator Bot Auto. The company said this was the first fully humanless over-the-road commercial truckload delivery to take place in the US. What made the run particularly important was that it followed a genuine customer timeline and transited standard freight networks, rather than representing a controlled demonstration.

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