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Europe's fourth-largest container shipping line, Hapag-Lloyd AG, has announced that from March 5 it will lower the bunker adjustment factor (BAF) applicable for all containerised shipments from North East Asia to Australia.

The revised BAF will be USD 125 per twenty-foot equivalent unit (TEU).

North East Asia comprises Japan, Korea, China, Hong Kong and Taiwan.

50 percent reduction since July

On January 13, the Hamburg-headquartered transportation company announced that it had lowered its BAF for all containerised shipments from North East Asia to Australia to USD 150 per TEU (effective from February 13).

The surcharge had been revised on December 28 to USD 175 per TEU (effective from January 24), down from the USD 200-per-TEU surcharge announced on September 25 (effective from October 24).

Prior to this, on September 3, the BAF was lowered to USD 225-per-TEU (effective from October 3), having been previously set at USD 275 per TEU on August 14 (effective from September 12), and USD 300 per TEU before that, on July 27 (effective from August 24).

Thus, the latest USD 25 adjustment represents a reduction of USD 175 per TEU, or 58.3 percent, in just over 7 months.