Trump’s proposed $1 million port fee on Chinese-built or operated vessels threatens to disrupt major carriers, including MSC and Maersk. The world’s two biggest shipping lines, MSC Mediterranean Shipping Co. and AP Moller-Maersk A/S, are also facing challenges as about a quarter of their current fleets are China-built and their order books are also heavily tilted toward shipyards in the Asian nation, according to data from Alphaliner. More than 90% of MSC’s current order book is placed with Chinese companies, with the figure for Maersk being more than 70%, the data shows. Thus, with Chinese ships featuring prominently in both current fleets and order books, the largest shipping lines will quickly rack up costs from the potential port fees, unless they take extraordinary measures, said Mr Peter Sand, Chief Analyst at Oslo-based freight analytics platform Xeneta, as per a report.
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