Potential US Tariffs Trigger 2-Year High in Global Shipping Rates

Freight shipping costs have leapt to their highest level in two years as companies race to build up their inventory before the United States imposes new tariffs and before fuel prices increase during the summer, the Financial Times reported Sunday (June 28).

The price of a 40-foot equivalent unit (FEU) between China and the U.S. East Coast rose 62% month over month to reach $7,880 last week, while rates between China and the Mediterranean increased 47% to $6,431, the report said, citing data from online freight shipping marketplace and platform Freightos.

Those rates are the highest since the summer of 2024, when missile and drone attacks by Houthi rebels in Yemen shut the trade artery through the Red Sea, according to the report.

A measurement of rates for shipping ocean containers across key global trade routes, the Platts Container Index, rose 80% during the 30 days ended Wednesday (June 24) and reached its highest level since April 2022, per the report.

The report attributed these increases to expectations that the U.S. will impose new tariffs and that fuel prices will continue to rise over the summer.

As companies race to beat these increases, shipping demand that usually picks up before the Black Friday and Christmas shopping seasons has been pulled forward to now, per the report.

The United States Trade Representative (USTR) announced June 2 that its proposed imposing duties of 10% or 12.5% on 60 economies that it determined have not done enough to prohibit the importation of goods produced with forced labor.

The USTR is accepting public comments on its proposal until July 6, and it will hold hearings about its proposed actions on July 7, the agency said in a June 2 press release.

The economies that are facing these duties include China and the European Union.

“The failure of our most important trading partners to address the importation of goods made with forced labor is unacceptable,” Ambassador Jamieson Greer said in the release. “This creates a dynamic where American workers are forced to compete globally on an unlevel playing field.”

The PYMNTS Intelligence report “Tariff Uncertainty Craters Confidence to Zero at Exposed Consumer Goods Companies” found that in May 2025, companies were adapting to supply chain disruptions by redesigning their workflows and using data analytics for insights and forecasting.