FEFC PLANS RATE INCREASES ON JULY 1

FEFC PLANS RATE INCREASES ON JULY 1    The carriers of the Asia Westbound Rate Agreement and Mediterranean Rate Agreement, two groups of Asia/Europe shipping lines that belong to the Far Eastern Freight Conference, have announced a planned westbound rate increase on July 1.
   The increase will be the third this year for shippers of containerized cargoes in the Asia to Europe trade, following the Far Eastern Freight Conference’s Jan. 1 and April 1 increases.
   The Far Eastern Freight Conference carriers said that they will implement a rate restoration of $250 per TEU on July 1. In addition, the tariff applicable to Nordic areas will be further increased by $50 per TEU, and the high cube surcharge will be raised to $200 per container, effective July 1, the conference said.
   “Following a long period of decline, overall cargo volumes in the westbound trade have begun to recover and lines have seen a market growth of around 4 percent during the first quarter of 2002,” the conference said.
   Despite what the Far Eastern Freight Conference described as “a recent modest increase in conference tariff rates,” the carrier group said that freight rates are still not compensatory for carriers.
   The FEFC carriers are APL, CMA CGM, Egyptian International Shipping Co., Hapag-Lloyd, Hyundai Merchant Marine, “K” Line, Maersk Sealand, Malaysia International Shipping Corp., MOL, Nippon Yusen Kaisha, Orient Overseas Container Line, P&O Nedlloyd Container Line and Yang Ming Marine Transport.