Waiting times for cargo ships lining up off Chinese ports have risen to their longest this year due to Beijing’s new port fee policy in retaliation for US tariffs.
It took an average of 2.66 days for a vessel to reach a port in China after arriving in the week to Oct. 19, up 17% from the previous week and the longest wait this year, according to Bloomberg calculations based on data from ship-tracking platform Kpler as of Oct. 21.
The reason is that customs authorities are taking more time to check the documents of vessels after China imposed new port fees on US-linked vessels in response to a similar move by Washington.
The new fee is 400 yuan ($56) per net ton (a ship’s cargo volume) from Oct. 14. The fee will increase gradually each year and eventually reach 1,120 yuan ($157) per net ton from April 17, 2027.
The maritime tensions are part of a broader trade dispute between the world’s two largest economies, leaving shipping lines scrambling to prepare the paperwork needed to prove their vessels are not subject to the new port charges or find ways to work around them.
Beijing’s new policy requires any vessel with at least 25 percent US ownership to be subject to the new port charges, prompting shipping lines to reconsider their ownership structures or swap vessels.
China’s new port charges have shaken up the shipping market as charterers and shipowners rush to close deals and book compliant vessels. The cost of booking a very large crude carrier not subject to the new port charges on the Middle East-China trade route was nearly $84,000 a day on October 21, 48 percent higher than before October 14.
China is the world’s largest importer of goods, so the congestion could spread across the global supply chain, affecting liquid cargoes like crude oil, as well as bulk carriers like iron ore.
Waiting times at some of China’s oil import ports are increasing as tanker owners seek to comply with new port fees. Last week, tankers at Dongjiakou port in Shandong province waited an average of 2.79 days to berth, the second-highest in Kpler’s data. Meanwhile, tankers at Yantai port, also in Shandong province, waited 2.7 days, up from about 1.8 days the previous week.
The average cost of booking a 150,000 deadweight tonnage (DWT) vessel on major shipping lanes remained high on October 21, despite a last-minute exemption announced by Beijing to exempt most of these large bulk carriers from new port charges.
“Owners are thinking they should wait until they can access ports in China. But there is still a lot of uncertainty around which owners will be charged,” said Matt Wright, a freight analyst at Kpler.
Meanwhile, major container lines including Maersk, Hapag-Lloyd and CMA CGM have rerouted their fleets to avoid the new US port charges.
“The new port fee policies of the US and China will lead to further disruption to the operations of shipping fleets and trade flows,” said Gernot Ruppelt, CEO of Ardmore Shipping, which specializes in transporting clean petroleum products, chemicals and vegetable oils.
