Fuel Prices and International Freight Costs

Fuel prices affect international freight costs through a small number of named charges, and understanding those charges is the fastest way to read a quotation. Fuel is not buried in the base rate for every mode. On ocean freight it appears as a fuel fee that the carrier reviews on a schedule. On air freight it appears as a fuel surcharge that can be reviewed weekly. In 2026 a third, emergency layer appeared on ocean freight. This guide explains how each charge works according to carrier and regulator documents, shows the arithmetic of a pass-through with made-up numbers, and ends with a way to budget for fuel risk.

For the wider list of charges, see what ocean freight surcharges are and how they affect costs. For trucking charges, see fuel surcharge trends in transportation logistics.

Four Ways Fuel Reaches the Bill

Route into the price	What the source says	Who sets it
Ocean fuel fee	Maersk's Fossil Fuel Fee is a single surcharge calculated from a weighted sum of the fuel types used in a trade and reviewed and updated quarterly	The carrier
Emergency fuel charge	A temporary, non-refundable surcharge for fuel disruption beyond what the standard fee covers	The carrier
Air fuel surcharge	Reviewed weekly against established market indices, with 15% of the rate proposed as a fuel allocation where a contract has no mechanism	The carrier or airline
Regulation	Rules on fuel quality and carbon change what ships burn and what carriers recover	Regulators

Ocean Freight: From Two Fuel Charges to One

In a notice of 31 May 2024, Maersk explained that it was replacing two fuel-related surcharges, the Bunker Adjustment Factor and the Low Sulphur Surcharge, with a single Fossil Fuel Fee. The notice says the fee reflects the costs of fuel types that regulations mandate, is calculated from a weighted sum of the different fuel types used in a trade, and is reviewed and updated quarterly. From 1 July 2024 new contractual quotes with more than three months' validity were quoted with the new fee, while existing contracts continued on the old surcharges until renewal.

The rule behind the old low-sulphur charge is international. The IMO says the limit on sulphur in fuel oil used on board ships is 0.50% outside emission control areas, a large reduction from the previous 3.5%, and that ships can comply with low-sulphur fuel, with exhaust gas cleaning systems or with alternative fuels. Our guide to how sea freight pricing works shows where the fuel fee sits among the other lines.

The 2026 Emergency Layer

Maersk's Emergency Bunker Surcharge notice of 10 March 2026, updated on 18 March, gives its reasons. It says approximately 20% of global oil supply moves through the Strait of Hormuz and that the situation significantly affected access to fuel, its availability at key locations, with the right specifications, and at a price Maersk could absorb. It introduced a temporary, non-refundable surcharge to mitigate fuel price volatility due to uncertain availability, cost or mix beyond what the standard Fossil Fuel Fee covers, effective 25 March 2026 and to be monitored regularly and adjusted up or down.

At launch the notice listed these dry container amounts in US dollars:

Scope	20-foot	40-foot
Long haul, headhaul	200	400
Long haul, backhaul	100	200
Intra trades, all directions	100	200

These are the launch levels, and the notice says updated levels are published on maersk.com, so check the current figure and which scope covers your lane. A Maersk overview of 24 March 2026 adds that many refineries in the Middle East were offline or running at reduced capacity and that some vessels had to refuel at ports that might include additional war-zone fees. UNCTAD's Review of Maritime Transport 2025 describes the Strait of Hormuz as a passage for about 34% of global seaborne exports of oil. The two figures measure different things, the share of oil supply and the share of seaborne oil exports, so do not compare them.

Air Freight: Weekly Reviews

Maersk's air freight notice of 13 March 2026 says fuel represents a major component of air freight operating costs, that fuel surcharges were increasing with jet fuel prices and that they would be reviewed weekly and adjusted in line with aviation fuel prices based on established market indices. For contract renewals without a fuel surcharge mechanism, it proposed that 15% of the rate be allocated to fuel. It also introduced a separate Transit Disruption Surcharge for the added costs of securing capacity, rerouting shipments and maintaining service, and said customers would receive specific advance notification before adjustments.

A Worked Pass-Through With Made-Up Numbers

The figures below are made up. They show how a fuel-related change moves the total for an ocean shipment of 10 forty-foot containers a month.

Line per 40-foot container	Before the emergency charge	After the emergency charge
Base freight	1,000	1,000
Fossil Fuel Fee	150	150
Emergency surcharge	0	200
Other charges	100	100
Total	1,250	1,450

The emergency charge adds 200 to a total of 1,250, which is an increase of 16%. It is 200 out of 1,450, or 13.8%, of the new total. For 10 containers a month the extra cost is 2,000 a month. If the charge were doubled to 400, the total would be 1,650, an increase of 32% over the original 1,250 and 200 more than the 1,450 case. The fixed rate in the first row did not change, so a buyer who compared only base freight would see no change.

For air freight, suppose a made-up contract rate of 5.00 per kilogram on a 1,000 kilogram shipment, so 5,000. If 15% of the rate is allocated to fuel, as Maersk proposed for contracts without a mechanism, 750 of the 5,000 is fuel-related. A weekly review means that this share can change even when the base rate does not.

Two Budget Cases for a Year

Turn the example into a budget. At the current level, 10 containers a month at 1,450 each cost 14,500 a month, or 174,000 over 12 months (14,500 x 12). If the emergency charge were doubled to 400 and stayed there, each container would cost 1,650, so 16,500 a month and 198,000 a year, which is 24,000 more. The emergency charge is described as temporary and subject to regular review, so neither case is a forecast. Their purpose is to show the size of the gap you would need to absorb or pass on, and how much room a fixed-price sales contract would need.

Questions to Put to Your Forwarder

Which charges on this quotation are fuel-related, and what are they called?
What is each one based on, and how often is it reviewed?
Is any of them temporary, and when is the next review?
Which charges are fixed for the validity of the quotation?
How will you tell me about a change before it applies?

Hands using a calculator and writing in a notebook beside a laptop — Compare every quotation line by line, because fuel can sit in more than one of them. Photo: Jakub Żerdzicki on Unsplash

Budgeting for Fuel Risk

Ask for every fuel-related line by name. Base freight, fuel fee, emergency charge and any disruption charge should appear separately.
Ask how often each line is reviewed and who announces changes. The 2024 notice says quarterly for the ocean fee and the 2026 air notice says weekly.
Set a range, not a point. Budget the total at the current level and at one higher level, as in the example above.
Compare like with like. A quotation that shows a low base rate and no fuel line is not a lower price until the other lines are known. See how to compare freight forwarding quotes effectively.
Plan the contract term. Contract and spot buyers face fuel risk differently, as our guide to spot market vs contract rates explains.

What Fuel Does Not Explain

Fuel is one reason a freight bill changes. Peak season surcharges, congestion, equipment and routing also matter. For example, Maersk's notice of 23 June 2026 and notice of 31 August 2026 set a peak season surcharge of USD 500 per container from Far East origins to Jawaharlal Nehru, Mundra and Pipavav from 1 July 2026 and revised it to USD 2,000 for 40-foot containers from 15 September 2026 for China, which is unrelated to fuel. See how to plan international shipments during peak seasons.

Manage Freight Costs With RR Brothers and Logistics

RR Brothers and Logistics arranges sea freight and air freight from China and handles customs clearance in India. Send us your lane and volumes and we will discuss how each fuel-related line appears in the quotation.

Frequently Asked Questions

Through a carrier fuel fee. Maersk's Fossil Fuel Fee is calculated from a weighted sum of the fuel types used in a trade and is reviewed quarterly, and a temporary Emergency Bunker Surcharge was added in March 2026.

A temporary, non-refundable Maersk surcharge, effective 25 March 2026, for fuel price volatility due to uncertain availability, cost or mix beyond the standard fee. It is monitored regularly and can go up or down.

Maersk said in March 2026 that its air fuel surcharges would be reviewed weekly against established market indices. Other carriers may use different rules, so ask for the review period.

The IMO says it is 0.50% outside emission control areas, down from 3.5%. Ships can use low-sulphur fuel, exhaust gas cleaning systems or alternative fuels to comply.

Because fuel-related and other surcharges are separate lines. In the made-up example, a 200 emergency charge raised a 1,250 total to 1,450 with the base freight unchanged.

Ask for each fuel-related line by name, ask how often it is reviewed, and budget the total at the current level and at one higher level.

Sources

This article is general information, not legal, tax or customs advice. Rules, rates and procedures change; confirm current requirements with the relevant authority or a licensed customs professional before you ship. Regulatory references were checked against the official sources listed above on 28 October 2026.

Image credits: header photo by Julia Taubitz on Unsplash; photo by Jakub Żerdzicki on Unsplash. Used under the Unsplash License.

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How Fuel Prices Affect International Freight Costs