Peak Season Surcharge

The market instability affecting westbound shipments from China in 2020 has continued into 2021. The lack of capacity in the air freight market has seen many shippers switch to sending by sea. A lack of available empty containers in China has continued to worsen and with Chinese New Year approaching is unlikely to be resolved anytime soon. With the coronoavirus pandemic causing staff shortages at ports and offices around the world, container prices have soared to record highs and show no sign of abating.

To avoid having to continually issue new rates for imports from China to the UK, increasing our administrative overhead and causing confusion for our customers, we have taken the decision to extend our 2020 China Import Rates for the whole of 2021, and will apply a floating Peak Season Surcharge on all shipments. The Peak Season Surcharge will be reviewed on a weekly basis and adjusted up or down as market conditions improve or worsen. The Peak Season Surcharge will be published on this page and should be added on to our tariff rate to calculate total freight cost. Our 2021 tariff for imports from China is available here.

We hope that this method of pricing will prove the easiest way of managing the ongoing instability and give our customers clear insight into market conditions and costs.