by Lloyd's List

27 May 2025 (Lloyd's List) - CHINA Cosco Shipping Corp hopes trade talks between Beijing and Washington can unravel its US port fee conundrum, according to the state conglomerate’s chairman Wan Min.

Speaking to Lloyd’s List on the sidelines of the 2025 Maritime Silk Road Port Co-operation Forum in Ningbo, Wan said the charges proposed by the US Trade Representative were “a matter between nations”, and the company would continue providing quality services for US trade customers.

The plan, due for implementation in October, targets Chinese shipowners and operators, as well as China-built vessels entering US ports.

Asked how Cosco will deal with the extra costs, Wan said: “Well, the China-US trade negotiations are still ongoing.”

The remarks come after Chinese vice-foreign minister Ma Zhaoxu and US Deputy Secretary of State Christopher Landau had a call last week on a range of key issues, although specific topics were not made public.

While the exchange does not indicate a breakthrough in negotiations, the contact after earlier high-level talks in Geneva is seen as a positive sign of maintaining communication between both sides.

China and the US have not publicly said the port fees are on the table, but expectations are building.

International Chamber of Shipping secretary-general Guy Platten last month said in Hong Kong that he would be surprised if the policy was not part of the discussions, hinting implementation could face further delays.

In revised form published in April, the port fee plan was much watered down from the previous draft, but still “pretty draconian”, Platten said.

Charges on Chinese shipping entities are seen by some as even more punitive, provoking concern.

“For Chinese operators, the fee is much higher than the non-Chinese ones, and it’s a big issue,” Drewry managing director Tim Power told the audience in Ningbo.

“So there will need to be some careful thinking among the container shipping lines about how to re-organise networks to deal with this challenge.”

Under the USTR’s current fee structure, a 10,000 teu Cosco containership, for example, will be charged about $3.5m per port call from October, based on approximately 70,000 net tonnes for a vessel that size.

The fee rises to $5.6m from April 2026, $7.7m from April 2027 and close to $10m from April 2028.

Drewry estimates port fee costs for Chinese carriers will start at $511 per feu — about 15% of current China-US west coast spot rates — climbing to $1,400 per feu by 2028, over 40% of prevailing rates.

By contrast, foreign rivals operating China-built ships will only incur fees starting from $180 per feu, maxing out at $340 per feu.

Power told Lloyd’s List on the sidelines of the event he expected that the Ocean Alliance, where Cosco Shipping is a member, would try to replace as much of its US-bound capacity with non-China-owned, -operated or -built tonnage.

Another possibility is creating non-Chinese entities to operate the targeted ships and reduce potential costs. “There is no limit to human ingenuity,” he remarked.

Sea-Intelligence assessed in a report earlier this month that the Ocean Alliance could only replace about 60% of its China-built or Cosco-operated transpacific capacity, unless it deployed ultra-large containerships of 18,000 teu or above, which are unusual callers to the US ports.

Power added that container ships are not the only sector impacted by the USTR port fees. Levies on China-operated or -owned very large crude carriers would be equivalent to about 145% of ocean freight rates, for example. For non-China-operated, China-built VLCCs, the fees would total around 52% of freight rates, the forum heard.

The over 1,000-strong Ningbo conference focused on supply chain collaboration, green shipping and technological progress, glossing over geopolitics-led disturbances.

The event’s first day saw a raft of framework agreements and Memorandums of Understandings signed between Chinese ports, shipping firms and their overseas partners.

Still, some speakers subtly acknowledged geopolitical challenges facing the industry.

“China opposes all forms of unilateralism, protectionism and hegemony,” said Wang Gang, vice-minister of transport. He added that Beijing wanted to keep promoting Belt and Road connectivity via infrastructure and standards alignment, upholding international shipping order and jointly ensuring supply chain stability.

Cosco’s Wan said: “We will remain steadfast in doing our own work well, and responding to external uncertainties with the certainty of our own high-quality development.”