CMA CGM’s Hormuz Surcharge Is Three Days Old. A Deal This Week Could Make It Indefensible

CMA CGM began collecting an emergency fuel surcharge on Saturday. By Tuesday morning, the premise for it was in question.

The Marseille-based carrier, one of the world's largest shipping and logistics groups, told customers that following renewed escalation of hostilities in the Strait of Hormuz, fuel prices had surged sharply again, reversing the easing seen in recent weeks — and that bunker costs had risen significantly across all regions and trades, raising the overall cost of ocean transportation. The surcharge took effect 1 August based on loading date, and will remain in place until further notice.

Then, on Tuesday, US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told CNBC that Washington is in talks with Tehran and there is a chance of a deal "today or tomorrow" to open the Strait and move toward a more normalised position in the conflict.

For French importers who booked cargo last week, that sequence raises a straightforward question with no published answer: at what point does an emergency surcharge stop being an emergency?

What the charge is

Reported figures vary by source, which is itself worth noting for anyone budgeting against them. AGBI put the Middle East surcharge at $75 to $165 per twenty-foot equivalent unit until further notice. Reporting on the carrier's notice via Reuters and Asharq Al-Awsat gave a range of $65 to $165 per container. Freight forwarders tracking the advisory described $150 per TEU for dry cargo and $165 per reefer container on long-haul services, subject to regulatory approvals.

CMA CGM said the increase reflects pressure not only on sea freight but across the wider logistics chain, including inland transport in affected regions.

It is not alone. Ocean Network Express set its own emergency fuel surcharge from 15 August at $75 per TEU and $100 per reefer on long-haul trades. Maersk, which introduced a temporary non-refundable emergency bunker surcharge back in March, is adding an emergency inland fuel and energy surcharge across its Nordic network. Drewry noted in its 23 July index assessment that several carriers had announced emergency fuel surcharges effective August, citing continuing concerns over Hormuz.

The part that doesn't add up

Container freight rates are falling while surcharges rise.

Drewry's World Container Index was down 4% to $4,374 per 40-foot container in that same 23 July assessment, with Shanghai–Los Angeles off 6% to $5,878 and Shanghai–New York down 4% to $7,598.

Base rates softening while emergency charges are layered on top means the surcharge is doing work the freight rate isn't. Whether that is genuine cost recovery or margin protection is the question shippers are asking, and the answer determines how quickly any of it unwinds.

There is precedent for it moving in only one direction quickly. CMA CGM introduced an EFS on 16 March, then revised it upward eleven days later to $265 per TEU for dry containers and $320 for reefer on long-haul head haul. The war premium later drained out of crude — Brent fell below its prewar level of $72 last month after peaking above $126 in April — and the surcharge was reinstated on 1 August when fighting resumed. Escalation has repriced the charge within days. De-escalation has not.

Why a deal may not end it

Even a signed agreement leaves physical obstacles. Mines in the Strait are among the biggest barriers to normalising traffic, with Tehran weighing whether to allow European countries to clear them. Bunker supply is also tight at Asian refuelling hubs, with Singapore prices climbing since early July, and vessels have been rerouting around Africa.

Ryan McKay, director of commodity strategy at TD Securities, argues Iran is unlikely to accept any deal without control of the Strait, making failure highly likely — and that even under a comprehensive agreement, export flows are already in line with what the current production recovery implies, leaving minimal upside.

None of which stops bunker costs falling if the market believes a deal is coming. It does mean the carrier has a defensible reason to hold the charge in place while it waits.

Who absorbs it

French importers, and eventually French shoppers, at the worst point in the calendar. The charge lands on cargo loading through August and September — the rentrée restocking window — and feeds into consumer prices as energy costs are already pressuring eurozone inflation.

Exporters in India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka were given under two weeks to book at the lower rate or absorb the higher one, an indication of how little notice shippers get in either direction.

For the wider conflict picture, IBT has covered Trump's dismissal of Iran's public Oman talks and his claim that the route is already controlled by the US Navy.