Maersk raises Honduras customs multi-stop fees, up to $205 per box

Maersk has raised its customs multi-stop rates across Honduras with immediate effect, with the steepest charges now reaching US$205 per container at two inland locations. The carrier blames higher fuel costs announced by the Honduran Institute of Land Transportation, which it says have pushed up inland transportation operating costs.

The revision applies to both import and export movements, and every charge is calculated per container. That symmetry matters for shippers: a box routed through a Honduran customs stop pays the same fee regardless of which direction it's moving.

What does this change for shippers?

In plain terms, any consignment needing an additional customs stop on Maersk's Honduran network now costs more per box, effective immediately. For a shipper running, say, 50 containers a month through two extra stops, that's several thousand dollars of new annual cost that wasn't in the budget last week.

The new schedule sets a fairly tight band. Most locations sit at US$140–$145, but a handful of stops run noticeably higher at US$190–$205. The spread suggests distance from the main corridor and local handling costs are doing the pricing work.

The full updated tariff looks like this:

• Votainer — US$140 per container, import and export
• Sicarga — US$145 per container, import and export
• Proyesa Puerto Cortes — US$205 per container, import and export
• Proyesa San Pedro Sula — US$145 per container, import and export
• DT36 Grupo Logístico del Norte — US$145 per container, import and export
• Hondumares San Pedro Sula — US$145 per container, import and export
• Zofraco — US$145 per container, import and export
• Adimex Toncontin — US$190 per container, import and export
• Honduras Tegucigalpa — US$190 per container, import and export
• Adimex La Mesa — US$165 per container, import and export
• Coranorte — US$205 per container, import and export
• Aimar — US$165 per container, import and export
• Swissport La Mesa — US$165 per container, import and export
• DT32 Operador Logístico Tegucigalpa — US$190 per container, import and export

The geography tells its own story. The two US$205 stops — Proyesa Puerto Cortes and Coranorte — bracket the network from the Caribbean port gateway to the northern interior. The US$190 tier clusters around Tegucigalpa, the capital, including Adimex Toncontin, Honduras Tegucigalpa and DT32 Operador Logístico Tegucigalpa. The US$165 mid-tier covers Adimex La Mesa, Aimar and Swissport La Mesa. Everything else stays in the US$140–$145 range, including the San Pedro Sula locations, Honduras's northern industrial hub.

Why fuel, and why now?

The trigger is regulatory, not commercial opportunism — at least on Maersk's telling. The Honduran Institute of Land Transportation recently announced higher fuel costs, and inland trucking in Central America runs on diesel like everywhere else. Maersk has simply passed the increase through to the per-container charge rather than absorbing it.

That pass-through logic has a familiar ring for anyone watching surcharge behaviour across the trades this year. Ocean carriers rarely eat regulator-driven cost increases, and Honduras is no exception. Forwarders booking multi-stop customs clearance in the country will need to update landed-cost calculations now, not at the next quarterly review.

The timing — immediate effect, no phase-in — leaves little room for renegotiation on in-flight bookings. Shippers with containers already routed through affected stops should expect the new charges to appear on their invoices as they clear.

For now, the practical move is straightforward: audit which Honduran stops your cargo actually uses, and note that routing a box through Puerto Cortes or Coranorte now costs roughly 45% more than through Votainer. Whether further fuel-driven adjustments follow depends on the Honduran regulator's next move on pump prices — and Maersk's willingness, or otherwise, to keep absorbing any of it.