News
Member container shipping lines in the Westbound Transpacific Stabilization Agreement （WTSA） will add a new component to their bunker fuel charges, to offset the added cost of burning more costly low-sulfur fuel while sailing within 200 miles of North American coastal waters.
The low-sulfur component （LSC） will be incorporated into WTSA's guideline bunker charge, effective with the calendar quarter beginning October 1, 2012, in the amount of US$11 per 40-foot container （FEU） from the West Coast, and $38 per FEU from the East and Gulf Coast. It will be based on the same 13-week reporting period as the standard bunker charge and will be adjusted on the same effective dates.
The LSC is based on 1） average weekly price differentials between standard bunker and low-sulfur fuel as reported by Platt’s; 2） a weighted average of WTSA carriers' relative daily consumption of the different fuels; and 3） average per-sailing days within the 200-mile Emission Control Area （ECA）limit.
The component is applied by backing out from the current bunker charge the number of sailing days within the ECA per voyage, at the fuel consumption rates and prices for standard bunker fuel, and then adding back in the number of days in the zone and costs based on average low-sulfur consumption and prices. All other calculation variables used in the existing bunker charge formula remain the same.
