Sea-Intelligence has reported early signs that shipping lines are adjusting their vessel deployment on the Transpacific ahead of new fees targeting Chinese-built vessels.
In its issue 732 of the Sunday Spotlight, the consultancy analysed weekly deployment data for 2025 on the Transpacific and Transatlantic trades, mapping each vessel to its shipyard of origin.
The new regulations from the US Trade Representative, scheduled to take effect on October 14, 2025, require Chinese-built vessels calling at US ports to pay a fee.
The rules exempt voyages shorter than 2,000 nautical miles and vessels smaller than 4,000 TEU. In addition, COSCO and OOCL will be subject to the fee regardless of where their ships were constructed.
On the Asia–North America West Coast trade, the share of Chinese-built vessels has decreased from 25–30% in the first half of 2025 to 20–25% in recent weeks, while a similar but smaller trend is visible on the Asia–North America East Coast.
On the Transatlantic, however, Sea-Intelligence found no evidence of a comparable shift.
Liner services from North Europe and the Mediterranean to North America continue to deploy Chinese-built vessels without a noticeable statistical reduction, despite some individual redeployments.
Sea-Intelligence is a Denmark-based maritime data and advisory firm specializing in liner shipping analysis, supply chain reliability metrics, and market forecasts for the container shipping industry.
COSCO Shipping Holdings Co., Ltd. operates container shipping and terminal businesses worldwide.