Global carriers are starting to officially announce the new ETS surcharges they intend to adopt, route by route, from the beginning of Q3 2025.
HMM is one of them. The South Korean company has estimated between €16 and €56 per TEU for dry boxes and between €24 and €84 for reefer containers.
Intra-Med surcharges have been set at €16 and €24 for dry and refrigerated containers respectively. €51 and €77 surcharges are to be applied from Asia to the Mediterranean, while there will be €30 and €45 surcharges between the Far East and Northern Europe. €26 and €39 per TEU surcharges are set to be applied from Northern Europe and the Mediterranean to North and South America.
ONE has also officially just recently announced its new quarterly ETS surcharges: $57/TEU for dry cargo and $110/ TEU for reefer cargo on the Asia-Mediterranean routes and $51/TEU for dry and $98/TEU for reefer cargo on intra-European routes.
As is well known, the new tariff increases were introduced by the carriers in 2024, when the emission tax came into force. Starting last year, big carriers are obliged to purchase and transfer permits (“EUAs”) for every tonne of CO2eq emissions released into the atmosphere during a calendar year. The quotas submitted by companies are set to increase over three years. Whereas in 2024 they only had to pay for 40% of the GHG emissions they produced, in 2025 the quota increased to 70%.
The surcharges have been introduced in a climate of uncertainty and calculated in ways that are often approximate and vary widely from company to company.
Translation by Giles Foster
