Fuel surcharges for international air express shipments have continued their upward path this monthin response to the surge in crude oil prices around the world earlier this year but could ease off
again in the next few months.The four leading international air express operators – DHL, UPS, FedEx and TNT – havegenerally raised surcharges around the world for the third successive month in line with theircrude oil price-based surcharge indices, CEP-Research analysis showed.
In Europe, three of the four integrators raised their surcharges in May. TNT Express, whichhas the highest level, put its European surcharge up to 22 per cent from 21.5 per cent last month.DHL hiked its rate to 18.5 per cent from 18 per cent in April and UPS’ surcharge rose to 18 percent from 17.5 per cent. However, FedEx kept its surcharge unchanged at 18 per cent.
In the USA, FedEx, UPS and DHL all increased their surcharges to 14.5 per cent this monthfrom 14 per cent in April.
In Asia Pacific, DHL, which has the highest level, put its surcharge up to 24.5 per cent from24 per cent last month while the UPS surcharge increased to 22 per cent from 21.5 per cent. TNThiked its Asia Pacific surcharge to 21.5 per cent from 21 per cent and FedEx’s surcharge rose to 19per cent from 18.5 per cent.
The air express fuel surcharges for March reflect the oil price level two months ago. Thefour leading express carriers calculate their surcharges based on indices showing the previousmonth’s oil price level and announce them in advance for the following month. This results in atwo-month time lag between prices and the surcharge level.
The May increases, which follow hikes in March and April, reflect the surge in oil prices inthe first quarter of this year. The price of Brent Crude oil soared from the $105 per barrel levelat the start of the year to peak several times at more than $125 during March.
Since then, however, it dropped back to between $125 and $120 during April and tumbledsharply this month to just over $110 a barrel today. This trend suggests that air expresssurcharges will soften in June to reflect the April oil price level and then decline in July due tothe two-month time lag between fuel price and surcharge implementation.
