by Manal Barakat, SeaNewsEditor

According to a Lloyd's List report, the Chinese shipping conglomerate COSCO could face up to USD 1.5 billion in extra costs next year as part of the port fees regulations proposed by the United States.

Although the final decision has not yet been released, the plan targets ships that are owned, operated, or built in China.

However, market analysts believe the liner will continue to have stable services on the Transpacific route despite the US measures.

An HSBC Global Investment Research analysis claims that Chinese carriers could effectively use their non-Chinese-built fleet to avoid the financial hit.

“We believe [non-Chinese carriers] have sufficient non-China built ships to deploy to avoid the fees,” said HSBC.

HSBC estimates show that non-Chinese-built vessels account for 71% of the world's containership capacity by TEU. However, on tonnage, those only make up 15% of US port calls in 2024 and 21% of Transpacific and Transatlantic capacity.

Nevertheless, given that it operates two Chinese liners, COSCO Shipping Lines and OOCL, Cosco Shipping Holdings is still expected to incur significant costs throughout 2026.

However, as members of the Oceam Alliance, the liners could mitigate the impact by switching vessels with partners CMA CGM and Evergreen to deploy non-Chinese tonnage to the US market.