The steamship lines announced an increase in the ocean fuel surcharge. Matson is quoted “As a result of sustained near record high fuel prices over the past month, Matson is raising its fuel surcharge by 4 percentage points”. They further state “Since announcing our last increase on March 31, fuel prices not only failed to stabilize, but continued to rise.”
We have all heard in the news that fuel demand is decreasing and that is helping to keep gasoline prices down compared to recent highs. The demand for bunker fuel that the ships use has not gone down. As the world economy picks up, it has increased. It is a different fuel than we put in our cars, so the price trend does not always match what we see at the pump. Let’s hope the barrel price continues to drop and bunker fuel prices do the same.
Matson will continue to monitor fuel prices and adjust the surcharge accordingly. The steamship charges are such a large part of Aloha’s costs, we will need to pass this increase on. The new fuel surcharge rate will be 47.5% effective 6/12/11. We hope for your understanding with our need to increase the surcharge.