Maersk drops Europe–South Africa PSS to zero on 40ft and 45ft boxes

Maersk has cut its Peak Season Surcharge on the Europe–South Africa trade to zero for all 40-foot and 45-foot containers, effective 29 October 2026 and valid until further notice. Twenty-foot equipment keeps the full $225 per box. Mozambique is excluded from the destination scope.

It's a simple tariff picture: two lanes, one number that survives, one that doesn't. Both North Europe and Mediterranean/South Europe origins to South Africa now carry identical treatment.

• North Europe → South Africa: 20ft US$225, 40ft US$0, 45ft US$0
• Mediterranean and South Europe → South Africa: 20ft US$225, 40ft US$0, 45ft US$0

The equipment coverage is broad. The revised tariff applies to dry, high-cube dry, bulk, collapsible flat rack, flat rack, hive, pallet-wide, open-top, tank and twin-deck boxes.

The origin scope stretches well beyond Europe itself. It covers countries across Northern, Mediterranean, Southern and Southeastern Europe, plus selected markets in North Africa, the Eastern Mediterranean, the Caucasus and Central Asia. So a shipper booking from, say, a Central Asian feeder point into Durban falls under the same revised structure as one loading at Rotterdam.

What does this change for shippers?

For anyone moving larger boxes, the answer is straightforward: the surcharge line disappears. A shipper running 40-foot high-cube equipment on this lane saves $225 per container from the effective date. At scale, that adds up — a programme of, say, four 40ft boxes a week pockets roughly $46,800 a year that was previously heading to the carrier as PSS.

Twenty-foot shippers see no relief. Their $225 stays put, and Maersk has given no end date — the revision holds "until further notice", which means carriers keep the option to restore or reprice at short order.

The change also tilts the economics toward consolidating cargo into bigger boxes where the cargo allows it. On a per-TEU basis, a 40-footer now carries zero PSS while two 20-footers carry $450 combined. That's not a subtle signal.

How the rate date is fixed

The mechanics matter as much as the number, and Maersk has kept its usual structure for working out which tariff applies.

For non-SPOT bookings, the applicable rate is based on the Price Calculation Date. For non-FMC shipments, that's the scheduled departure date of the first water leg at booking confirmation. For FMC shipments, it's the final container gate-in date — a definition US shippers' contracts will already recognise.

For SPOT bookings, Maersk retrieves the applicable rate using either the booking confirmation date or the first vessel's estimated departure date at booking confirmation. The surcharge follows the freight payment location, so where freight is paid determines the jurisdictional treatment.

Forwarders booking on behalf of clients should check where each booking falls on that spot-versus-contract divide before quoting, since a booking confirmed just before 29 October versus just after can carry materially different surcharge math.

For now, the South Africa trade has one less surcharge to model on the large-box side. Whether the 20-foot rate of $225 follows it down — or whether the zero proves temporary in a peak-season framework that by definition comes and goes — is the question Maersk's next notice will answer.

(Reported by Container News.)

By Amara Osei for Waybill Wire