US-China Port Fee Truce Expires November 9, and Carriers Still Don't Know What Comes Next
Seven weeks from now, the one-year truce on port fees between the United States and China runs out. Unless Washington and Beijing extend it, the US fees on Chinese-owned and Chinese-built ships come back on November 9, and China's matching fees on US-linked ships come back with them. With the Gulf war taking up most of the attention in shipping, this deadline has been getting less of it than it deserves.
What was paused
The US fees come from a Section 301 investigation into China's dominance in shipbuilding, maritime and logistics. The US Trade Representative announced the fee schedule in April 2025, and it took effect in October 2025.
Two main charges apply per US port call:
- Ships owned or operated by Chinese companies: $50 per net ton, rising each year through 2028
- Chinese-built ships run by non-Chinese operators: $18 per net ton, also rising
For a big container ship, a single call could cost millions. The fees were meant to push carriers away from Chinese-built tonnage and help revive US shipbuilding.
Beijing answered with mirror-image fees on US-linked ships calling at Chinese ports, starting at 400 yuan per net ton and rising steeply. It also sanctioned US subsidiaries of Hanwha Ocean, the Korean shipbuilder that owns Philadelphia's shipyard. Industry estimates put a single port call under the Chinese fees at close to $5 million for the largest carriers.
Both sets of fees ran for less than a month. After the Trump-Xi summit in South Korea, the two governments suspended them for a year starting in November 2025.
Why the deadline matters more now
Shipping is already under heavy cost pressure. Bunker fuel is up sharply since the Hormuz closure. War-risk insurance is expensive across the Middle East. Container rates on the transpacific are near the highest since the pandemic. Adding port fees on top would push freight costs up again on the busiest US trade lane.
The exposure is concentrated. COSCO and OOCL, which are Chinese-owned, would face the highest fees on every US call. But Chinese-built ships are everywhere. China builds more than half the world's merchant tonnage, and it won 89 of 102 VLCC orders placed in the first five months of this year. Almost every major carrier and tanker owner runs a fleet with a large share of Chinese-built ships. Reinstated fees would hit them all.
The politics
There's pressure on both sides of the argument. Labor unions opposed the suspension from the start, saying it put short-term trade deals ahead of shipyard workers. In June, Senators Elizabeth Warren and Mark Kelly wrote to USTR Jamieson Greer pressing him on the shipbuilding fees. Shipping associations welcomed the pause because it gave them room to plan.
Meanwhile, the US shipbuilding push the fees were meant to support is moving through other channels. Korea's $150 billion MASGA pledge, Hanwha's $5 billion Philadelphia expansion and new Navy work are all building up US capacity, regardless of the fees.
USTR has said it will assess whether to extend or reinstate before the deadline. It hasn't said more than that.
What carriers are doing
Mostly waiting. Few carriers are changing deployments now, because the Gulf and Red Sea disruptions matter far more to their networks this quarter. Cargo owners heading into 2027 contract talks, though, need an answer to a simple question: who pays if the fees return mid-contract?
The likeliest outcome is another extension tied to broader US-China trade talks. It's also the outcome no one can count on. Carriers planning US calls for November have a date on the calendar and no answer.