US port fee plan could sink smaller ports

In California, a proposed Trump administration plan to impose port fees on China-linked vessels could force carriers to drop smaller ports and reroute cargo to major hubs, said Lars Jensen, CEO of Vespucci Maritime, in a interview with the Freight Buyers’ Club at TPM25 March 5. “I’m not all done with my modeling, but the rough ballpark I have so far indicates more than $20 billion a year in cost,” he said.

With fees charged per port call, Jensen warned that carriers would consolidate services. “I’m going to pay a million dollars a port call, I’m not going to call three or four ports,” he said, predicting that smaller ports would lose services while major gateways like Los Angeles/Long Beach and New York/New Jersey would face increased congestion. “That’s going to put the hinterland under pressure, and it’s quite simply unworkable.”

The bill also requires that 5% of US exports move on US-built ships within seven years. “There is not the yard capacity or the yard know-how to build these big ships to have them operational seven years from now. That is just not possible,” Jensen said. “It’s more than a pie in the sky. It’s somebody’s hallucination.”

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