Hapag-Lloyd to introduce Toronto surcharge

23 Dec 2009

Source:CI Online

Hapag-Lloyd intends to apply an imbalance surcharge of USD200/20ft and USD250/40ft on all dry containers loaded in northern Europe and the Mediterranean for Toronto (Canada) from February 15, 2010.

The charge will be a contribution towards the cost of empty container repositioning from Toronto's terminal to either Montreal or New York. The only way to avoid it, therefore, will be for shippers to stipulate a Montreal or New York B/L only, and then provide the round-trip on-carriage to the Ontario region themselves.

As this is the first time the surcharge is to be raised, it implies that something has changed in the balance between Ontario's inbound and outbound flows. No information is yet available on this from the European Liner Affairs Association, unfortunately. However, in 2008 container flows between northern Europe and Canada were fairly evenly balanced, at around 400,000TEU, whereas the westbound flow from the Mediterranean was already much higher than the eastbound flow - 140,000TEU versus 113,000TEU respectively.