Spotlight
Container lines impose new fuel surchargers
Ocean carriers will roll out another round of emergency fuel surcharges in August as the escalating Middle East war reverses a recent downward trend in bunker costs and sends prices soaring. Prices of very low-sulfur fuel oil( VLSFO) and high-sulfur fuel oil( HSFO) that had begun to ease into July on hopes that the ceasefire between the US and Iran would hold have risen sharply in the two weeks since US air strikes intensified. About 20 % of the world’ s oil and gas supply passed through the Strait of Hormuz before the war, and cutting off that pipeline has led to tightening bunker fuel supplies in key refueling locations, most notably in Asia. In the world’ s largest bunker center of Singapore, market prices of VLSFO reached $ 785 per metric ton in mid-July, up 24 % from the first week of July, according to Ship & Bunker. HSFO was 32 % higher at $ 579 per mt, while marine gas oil( MGO) prices hit $ 1,199 per mt, up 33 % compared to the first week of July, before the ceasefire collapsed.“ Following the renewed escalation of hostilities in the Strait of Hormuz over the past days, fuel prices have surged sharply again, reversing the easing observed in recent weeks,” CMA CGM told customers in an advisory.
Shutterstock. com
Truckload rates to rise through 2027: indicator
One of the trucking industry’ s most closely watched pricing indicators is sending its strongest signal in years: truckload capacity has tightened enough that contract and spot rates could continue rising well into 2027, and possibly beyond. The Spot Premium Ratio( SPR), developed by DAT Freight & Analytics, has climbed to approximately 30 %, a level historically associated with some of the strongest carrier pricing cycles of the past decade. Because spot rates react more quickly than contract rates, the SPR has become one of the trucking industry’ s most reliable leading indicators of future contract pricing. The ratio has widened steadily since late 2025, suggesting rising contract rates have yet to fully reflect changing market conditions.“ It’ s really just a measure of market tightness,” said Chris Caplice, executive director of the MIT Center for Transportation & Logistics and chief scientist at DAT Freight & Analytics, who said rates could remain favorable for carriers well beyond this year.“ If history is any guide, I would expect elevated rates in this cycle that will end by the end of Q2 2027, or the beginning of Q3 2027,” he said. Previous truckload cycles reaching similar levels have coincided with some of the strongest carrier pricing environments since deregulation in 1980.
ILWU reaches inland to Utah office workers
The clerical unit of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union( ILWU) has successfully organized clerical workers in the Utah office of terminal operator SSA Marine, reflecting a larger push to organize offices
NurPhoto / Contributor / Getty Images
beyond the unit’ s Southern California base. The Office Clerical Unit( OCU) has for decades represented workers who process shipping documentation at offices in the Los Angeles-Long Beach region. The ILWU OCU has individual contracts with more than a dozen shipping lines and terminal operators in Southern California. The OCU in June launched an organizing effort among 113 office workers in the Draper, Utah, office of terminal operator SSA Marine.“ In an election held on July 1, 2026, by the National Labor Relations Board, SSA Marine’ s employees in Salt Lake City [ Draper ] Utah, voted to be represented by the International Longshore and Warehouse Union Office Clerical Unit for the purposes of collective bargaining,” SSA Marine said in a statement to the Journal of Commerce.“ The result of this election is not yet certified, and we understand from the NLRB that this process can take up to seven business days.” ILWU OCU President John Fageaux did not respond to requests for comment. Office clerical workers perform a variety of functions such as associate vessel planner, billing specialist and customer support representative. Unlike traditional longshore work, those jobs do not have to be performed at the marine terminal.
Carriers passing Panama Canal costs on to shippers
Ocean carriers are seeking hundreds of dollars in surcharges per container tied to low-water draft limitations at the Panama Canal. Mediterranean Shipping Co.( MSC) in late July announced a $ 100 per TEU surcharge on shipments between
6 Journal of Commerce | August 3, 2026 www. joc. com