[090812.EN.SEA] Hapag Levies Low-sulphur Fuel Surcharges As UN Control Zone Imposed

GERMANY's big container carrier, Hapag-Lloyd, the world's sixth largest shipping line, has announced it will levy a US$25 per TEU low-sulphur fuel surcharge from September 3 for transatlantic services after the imposition of a United Nations emissions control zone was enacted off on August 1 off the US and Canada.

Meanwhile the State of Alaska fighting the application of the zone in court by suing the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the US Coast Guard and the State Department over the legality of new regulations, arguing that they are not legal until the Senate ratifies the amendment to the UN treaty on which they are based, which it has not yet done. Reuters reported.

Hapag-Lloyd already had a low-sulphur charge of $11 per TEU for ships calling north Europe where there has been a UN control zone in the Baltic Sea since 2006 and North Sea since 2007, reports American Shipper.

"Hapag-Lloyd will have to buy more expensive fuel with only one per cent sulphur content when sailing within 200 nautical miles of the North American coast," said a company statement accompanying the announcement.

This follows Geneva-based Mediterranean Shipping Company's (MSC) announced last month to impose a low-sulphur fuel charge last month.

Hapag Lloyd said the charge $25 per TEU will be applied to North America to North Europe bound cargo and $20 per TEU for containers moving between North America and the Mediterranean and Africa.

The Alaska lawsuit, filed in US District Court in Anchorage in July, challenges the new regulation, estimated to increase shipping costs eight per cent, contends that enforcement of the UN treaty amendment is not permitted without ratification by a two-thirds majority vote in the US Senate.

The treaty at issue is a 2010 agreement under the United Nation's International Maritime Organisation's (IMO) International Convention for the Prevention of Pollution from Ships (MARPOL). The US has signed onto MARPOL, and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has accepted the 2010 amendment.

Source : HKSG.