Shipping Costs Soar as Hormuz Crisis Reshapes Global Trade
OPEC’s Oil Demand Bet Is on India, Not Europe What I Cover Tsvetana Paraskova is an energy and commodities journalist who has contributed to Oilprice.com for nearly a decade, covering global energy markets, commodities,… The Middle East war has upended global shipping, raising bunker fuel costs, altering trade routes, and forcing shippers and their container cargo customers to adapt to a new reality.
Soaring costs of marine fuels have brought forward the peak cargo shipping season to the spring, ahead of additional fuel costs that vessel owners will roll into annual contracts as of July 1.
As a result of the expected higher fuel costs and in anticipation of potentially higher U.S.
tariffs on imported goods as of July, imports of container cargo volumes jumped at the Port of Los Angeles, the busiest U.S.
container port, in May to the second-highest level on record.
Loaded imports totaled 449,370 twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs) in May 2026, up by 26% from a year earlier, the Port of Los Angelessaidthis week.
The comparison was aided by softer import volume in May 2025, when many cargo owners temporarily paused shipments amid changing U.S.
“We're seeing cargo move for a combination of reasons, including inventory replenishment, concerns about fuel costs, trade-policy uncertainty and preparation for upcoming retail seasons,” Port of Los Angeles Executive Director, Gene Seroka, told reporters at a media briefing this week.
“Companies are operating with shorter planning horizons and taking advantage of opportunities when they emerge.” The war in the Middle East has upended shipping fuel markets with prices of marine fuelsskyrocketingand regions running low on supply, pushing some traders to forgo cargo and ship additional fuel volumes to key bunkering ports outside the Middle East.
Vessel operators slapped emergency surcharges due to the price spike of bunker fuels.
Moller – Maerskintroduced, as of March 25, an Emergency Bunker Surcharge (EBS), “in response to notable fluctuations in fuel supply and the additional costs of distribution.” Hapag-Lloyd did the same byintroducingan Emergency Fuel Surcharge (EFS) across all trades and covering the extraordinary costs not covered by the Marine Fuel Recovery Charge (MFR).
In early May, Maersk’s CEO Vincent Clerc said that “the cost impact of this energy shock is unprecedented both in terms of size, the speed at which it has unfolded, and the dislocations it has created in the market.” For Maersk, the Hormuz energy shock “represents approximately $500 million in extra cost per month that we must find a way to pass through,” the executivesaidon the Q1 earnings call.
| Product | Price | Change |
|---|---|---|
| Brent Crude | $102.14/bbl | +0.34% |
| WTI Crude | $96.90/bbl | +0.21% |
| EN590 Diesel | $846/MT | +0.18% |
| Jet Fuel A-1 | $1090/MT | +0.55% |
| Mazut M100 | $450/MT | -0.15% |
| Bitumen 60/70 | $470/MT | +0.08% |
| Sulphur Gran 99.5% | $470/MT | -0.44% |
| Urea 46% Gran | $650/MT | +1.12% |
| NPK 16-16-16 | $460/MT | -0.28% |
| Nat Gas TTF | $15.42/MMBtu | +0.92% |
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