HONG KONG—Evergreen Marine Corp., Asia’s largest container-shipping line, Hanjin Shipping Co. and eight other companies will more than quadruple surcharges on shipments to Asia from the US because of surging fuel costs.

The guideline minimum levy will climb to at least $600 per 40-foot container starting on July 1 and to at least $900 from October 1, the 10-member Westbound Transpacific Stabilization Agreement (WTSA) said on its web site last week. The levy will be at least $200 from April 1, it said.

Shipping lines are grappling with fuel prices that have more than doubled in the last three years, higher port fees and rising road and rail-transport costs. Fuel accounts for at least half of fixed operating costs on transpacific voyages, the statement said.

The group’s members “have been recovering only a fraction of those costs for a period of years,” WTSA executive administrator Brian Conrad said in the statement.

Bunker fuel prices in the trans-pacific market increased to $530 per ton this month from $198 per metric ton at the beginning of 2005, the group said.

Other members of the grouping include TUI AG’s Hapag-Lloyd AG, Hyundai Merchant Marine Co., Nippon Yusen K.K. and China Cosco Holdings Co.’s container unit. (Bloomberg)

Subic shipyard acquires new equipment

SUBIC BAY FREEPORT—A Subic-based company offering vessel-repair services has acquired another dry-docking facility to better serve its growing list of local and foreign customers.

BRUSSELS—United Parcel Service Inc. and FedEx Corp. would probably face flight curbs in the European Union (EU) should the US refuse to open its domestic airline market to foreign investors after 2010, the EU’s transport chief said.

LONDON—The Baltic Dry Index, a measure of shipping costs for commodities, advanced 2.4 percent in London for a third consecutive gain on Chinese steelmakers’ demand for iron ore.

HONG KONG—Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering Co., the world’s third-largest shipyard, may increase prices this year to pass on higher steel-plate costs to customers.

HONG KONG—Evergreen Marine Corp., Asia’s largest container-shipping line, Hanjin Shipping Co. and eight other companies will more than quadruple surcharges on shipments to Asia from the US because of surging fuel costs.