In the year 2019 there was a slight decrease in economic growth, but nevertheless the capacities in the logistics market were tight in many areas. Nevertheless, apart from the general market developments, in particular at Ocean FCL, tariff increases in the transport and forwarding sector appear to be of a smaller size this year than in the previous year. We will adjust our rates where necessary to the increased cost level.
As you expect from us, we would like to provide an overview of the most important developments with regards to the rates for sea- and airfreight and road transport within our service package at the start of every new year.
Ocean Freight
- Import Asia
The rates increased substantial in recent weeks and it currently appears that cargo space is tight in China in particular. The new IMO 2020 fuel surcharge for cleaner bunker plays an important role in this development.
As we have been doing this for a number of years, the fluctuations are again absorbed by the variable "Peak Season" allowance (PSS). For all shipments after January 1, 2020, we set our PSS to zero pending further developments.
- North America
The export rates to North America decreased slightly for Q1, 2020, despite the increase due to the IMO 2020 surcharge. Where possible, we have adjusted our rates accordingly.
For the import rates from America we currently do not see any significant changes.
Air freight
- Import Asia
For imports from Asia, the rates went up considerably in the 4th quarter of 2019. Until the Chinese New Year, the rates will again show an upward trend. We have adjusted our rates accordingly and large fluctuations will be re-balanced with our well known PSS.
- North America
The development of air freight rates to North America remained reasonably stable in the 4th quarter of 2019. However, many airlines have adapted their fleet for the winter season by deploying fewer or smaller aircraft, resulting in decreasing capacities. Despite this annual change, we have had little or no change in our airfreight rates for Q1, 2020.
Surcharges
The surcharges for FSC, SSC, CAF, BAF and LSF are charged to you as always according to per outlay. Fuel-related surcharges in particular are currently rising, due to higher oil prices on the world market. For routes via Canada, a number of shipping companies have introduced a new surcharge, namely the "Low water surcharge" (LWS), which we will pass on where applicable in our rates.
Road transport
The rates for road transport in the Netherlands and Europe show a slight increase of 2 to 3% for this year. We have adjusted our rates accordingly.
Forwarding / Customs rates
Thanks to extensive automation, we have succeeded in reducing the costs for our customs clearance. Therefore we will not implement a price increase for customs clearance and we have adjusted the rates for export declarations downwards. For 2020, we have not adjusted the costs for our forwarding efforts (handling) to the increased cost level.