Ocean carriers are warning shippers to brace for extra costs and delays through India’s busiest container port as transshipment cargo is being rerouted because of the Middle East war. The warning lands as freight flows across South America and other long-haul lanes are being pulled into a wider logistics shuffle.
The pressure is showing up in schedules and pricing at once. A Marseille-based carrier has ended a 14,000-TEU-per-week service that called Asia and both U.S. coasts, is putting bigger ships on an existing East Coast route and is launching a new West Coast express service, a sign that carriers are trying to absorb shifting demand while keeping network time tables intact.
Shippers are reading the timing closely because the market is already facing another round of cost pressure. Asia-Europe ocean shippers are set for hefty rate increases on July 1, and it has been five years since Union Pacific imposed a surcharge this early in the year, underscoring how quickly transport costs are building across sea and rail links.
Union Pacific expects shippers to keep moving freight off the highway as trucking and fuel costs stay elevated, which adds another layer of strain to a system already coping with rerouted cargo. The immediate open question is how long the added delays at India’s busiest container gateway will last, since carriers have not said when the rerouting pressure will ease.
