Maersk will levy a Peak Season Surcharge of US$500 per container on shipments from the East Coast of South America to Europe, with a Price Calculation Date of 1 November 2026.

The charge covers all dry and refrigerated container sizes and applies across the carrier's entire European coverage from the region. Cargoes loading in Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay and Paraguay destined for North Europe, Central and Eastern Europe, the East and West Mediterranean, Scandinavia, the Baltics and the Black Sea will all attract the flat US$500 per box fee.

For shippers moving refrigerated goods — a mainstay of the east coast South America–Europe trade, where Brazilian and Argentine protein and fruit exports rely heavily on reefer equipment — the surcharge adds a flat cost regardless of box size. A 20-foot reefer and a 40-foot high-cube reefer will now both carry the same US$500 add-on, on top of base ocean rates.

The flat, per-container structure also means the effective percentage impact lands hardest on smaller equipment and lower-value cargo. Shippers consolidating into 40-foot units will absorb proportionally less than those locked into 20-foot flows.

For forwarders, the 1 November 2026 Price Calculation Date is the operative trigger. Maersk sets the surcharge by that date rather than by shipment or arrival date, which means bookings priced after the cutoff — even for cargo loading earlier — will need to be checked against the new calculation basis. Contract rates negotiated before the announcement may be repriced if the PSS applies on top of agreed levels.

The breadth of the destination scope is notable. Rather than targeting a single trade lane, Maersk has applied the surcharge to essentially its full Europe-facing network from the east coast of South America, from North Europe and the Baltics through to the Mediterranean and Black Sea. That leaves shippers on these routes with no alternative European destination pairings that avoid the charge within the Maersk network.

The move follows the familiar pattern of carriers layering peak season surcharges onto east–west and north–south trades to capture upside during high-demand windows and offset capacity costs. For carriers, PSS announcements of this kind test shipper tolerance ahead of annual contract negotiations; for shippers, they function as a signal of where the carrier sees demand strengthening on the lane.

Whether the surcharge holds at US$500, is revised upward, or is withdrawn will depend on how east coast South America–Europe demand and equipment positioning develop through the 2026 peak season.