Transpacific container lines eye peak-season surcharge

• TSA recommends $600 per FEU surcharge
• Says shipping lines expect strong summer season
• Says utilisation rates up near 95%

COPENHAGEN (Reuters): A group representing the transpacific container shipping industry is recommending a surcharge on containers for the peak summer season, signalling it expects a robust recovery in business from a weak 2011 as the U.S. economy gathers strength.

The Transpacific Stabilization Agreement (TSA) said it recommended a surcharge of $600 per 40-foot container (FEU) from June 10 and proportionate increases on other container sizes.

“Asia-U.S. container shipping lines see a strong summer ahead in terms of cargo traffic, as suggested in U.S. consumer spending and retail sales trends, and confirmed in carrier forward bookings,” Oakland, California-based TSA said in a statement dated May 8.

Established in 1989, the TSA calls itself a research and discussion forum of major container shipping lines serving the trade from Asia to ports and inland points in the United States.

Its members include Denmark’s Maersk Line, privately owned Switzerland-based Mediterranean Shipping Company (MSC), French privately held CMA CGM, China’s COSCO , Korea’s Hanjin Shipping, Taiwan’s Evergreen Marine and several others.

The peak season surcharge is meant to cover extra seasonal costs associated with anticipated cargo surges, the TSA said.

The global container shipping industry is recovering from a plunge in freight rates last year to loss-making levels.

Last year, transpacific lines refrained from adding a peak-season surcharge in June and July due to the weak market, but a rate increase of around $200 was pushed through in August.

The peak season has in the past corresponded to the third quarter of the year, but it is not fixed in time and can take place earlier or later, depending largely on when goods are shipped from Asia to the United States ahead of the Christmas shopping season.

“The lines see a strong outlook for the coming months, with utilisation already in the 95 percent range,” TSA Executive Administrator Brian Conrad said in the statement.

“At the same time, they continue to dig out after a long period of serious financial losses, and want to be sure they are well-positioned to ramp up services as the trade rebounds,” Conrad said.

The National Retail Federation (NRF) said in a statement this month that U.S. consumers were spending despite high gasoline prices and other economic concerns so retailers were stocking up and imports were seen growing.

The federation said cargo volumes at U.S. ports monitored by Global Port Tracker, a survey produced for the NRF, were up 14.1 percent in March from February, traditionally the slowest month of the year.

The NRF said container volumes through monitored U.S. ports in the first half of 2012 should total 7.3 million twenty-foot units (TEU), up 1.9 percent from the same period last year.

Container shipping caters mainly to shippers of consumer goods, from frozen food to television sets and clothing, so volumes tend to reflect underlying developments in retail trade.