Container Shipping Quarterly

Special Report

Container lines revamp networks to mitigate new US port fees

By Michael Angell

The mid-October start of US port fees aimed at diminishing Chinese shipbuilders and ocean carriers looks far less foreboding for the larger container shipping industry than it did just six months ago.

Container lines have removed— and continue to remove— Chinese-built vessels from US services, instead deploying ships built in Japan, South Korea and Taiwan to avoid the US Trade Representative’ s( USTR) fees that take effect Oct. 14. Cosco Shipping, which will bear brunt of the tariff along with subsidiary OOCL, says customers won’ t see a change in service levels and, as the largest carrier on the trans-Pacific trade, vowed to“ maintain competitive rates and surcharges.”

“ The [ USTR fees ] have disrupted shipbuilding orders, prompting shipowners to rethink order volumes.”

That’ s a vastly different scenario than the industry was bracing for six months ago, when the scale of the USTR port fees risked driving some carriers out of the US market. Port calls to Boston, Baltimore, Portland, Oregon; and Jacksonville, Florida, risked being lopped off liner services, given that a single US port call by a Chinese-built or-operated vessel would have incurred a roughly $ 1 million bill. Smaller carriers serving the Caribbean and smaller trades warned of sinking under the weight.

10 Journal of Commerce | October 6, 2025 www. joc. com