On 30 September 2026, FreightWaves reported that a two-month extension of the US–China trade truce could make a delay of planned US port-call fees on China-linked vessels more likely, while Transpacific container spots pushed to new yearly highs, according to a Freightos (NASDAQ: CRGO) market update on SONAR. USTR had not formally announced a port-fee deferral as of the article’s publication.
Freightos data cited by FreightWaves put Asia–US West Coast spot rates at $8,400 per forty-foot equivalent unit, a new high for the year. East Coast spots held at about $9,600 per FEU, roughly $200 below their late-August peak. Prices climbed again even as demand was expected to ease after China’s Golden Week and the traditional peak season. Freightos attributed persistence of high pricing to blank sailings, port delays and carrier allocation controls—including expanded blanked sailings through the holiday period into late October and reported cuts in allocations to contracted forwarders—rather than demand alone.
Sea-Intelligence estimates port delays are absorbing more than 8% of global vessel capacity and could take as long as 10 months to fully unwind, which, with higher bunker costs tied to the Strait of Hormuz closure, could floor rates even in softer seasonal windows. Separately, the Panama Canal Authority plans to restore daily Neopanamax transits to the normal 10 and raise maximum authorized draft to 49 feet in mid-October, reversing late-August cuts—helpful for Asia–USEC routing but not necessarily permanent if El Niño weakens wet-season rainfall. Asia–North Europe spots fell 9% to about $3,400 per FEU and Asia–Mediterranean 7% to about $3,600 per FEU as Red Sea/Suez effective capacity recovered, even as some carriers still seek late-October GRIs.