CONTAINER shipping lines belonging to the Transpacific Stabilisation Agreement (TSA) say they plan to increase the peak season surcharge in August.

Given the stronger than expected peak season and concerns over growing network constraints, inland rail congestion, and the Panama's capacity, TSA lines said they will be increase the peak season surcharge by US$200 per 40-foot container from August 1 through October 31.

The carriers say vessels are nearly full from Asia to all US coastal points. Network capacity constraints have already produced equipment shortages and resulted in some Asia cargo being bumped to later sailings. Combined with near 20 per cent cargo growth on the Asia-Europe trade and similar strong demand on the intra-Asia trade, the result has been a tightening of vessel space and equipment availability.

Member lines in the TSA said in a statement that vessel utilisation averaged 86 per cent to the Pacific northwest, 95 per cent to California ports and 91 per cent through the Panama Canal during May. These levels are expected to increase further throughout the summer amid forecasts by the National Retail Federation/Global Insight Port Tracker Service that demand will grow to 1.54 million TEU in July and 1.57 million TEU in August, reaching a high for the year during October.

"Cargo growth is moderating relative to last year, but it's on track with earlier forecasts of 10-11 per cent in an end-to-end system that's seriously strained," said TSA executive Brian Conrad.

TSA members include: APL, "K" Line, CMA CGM, MSC, Cosco Container Lines, MOL, Evergreen Line, NYK Line, Hanjin Shipping, OOCL, Hapag-Lloyd, Yangming Marine Transport Corp., and Hyundai Merchant Marine.