BLACKETT. June 11, 2026 · INTELLIGENCE OF THE DAY · NORTH AMERICA

Hapag-Lloyd and Maersk launched Asia-Europe PSS this week, Drewry says rates climb further, and shippers are pulling forward everything they can before tariffs hit.

Hapag and Maersk made it official Hapag-Lloyd's peak season surcharge on Asia-Europe took effect Monday. Maersk's followed Wednesday. Both landed at $300 to $500 per 20ft container and $600 to $1,000 per 40ft, stacked on top of FAK levels carriers already lifted in May. The June 1 FAKs on Asia-Europe ran around $4,700 per 40ft at CMA CGM, $5,500 to $5,700 on Asia-Med, and ONE's Transpacific PSS came in at $2,000 per 40ft eastbound. The surcharge stack is doing the work the spot market used to do, and it's only the second week of June.

Drewry sees rates climbing further Drewry's reading on it is that rates keep going up in the coming weeks. The demand isn't a surprise to anyone in the trade, shippers are pulling bookings forward ahead of the potential US tariff changes USTR has signaled for July, and there's a layer of cargo demand tied to the 2026 FIFA World Cup that started showing up in the May bookings. Add the July 1 bunker fuel adjustment carriers already announced, and you have three reasons to ship in June stacked on top of each other. The 23% jump on the WCI last week to $3,433 per FEU wasn't a one-week move, it was the system catching up.

PPI confirms the oil shock is still feeding through US producer prices climbed 1.1% in May, matching the April pace and hitting the fastest reading since March 2022. The 12-month figure ran 6.5%, the highest since November 2022. Final demand goods rose 2.8% on the month, services just 0.3%, and core PPI ex food and energy came in at 0.4%, slightly below the 0.5% consensus. The pattern is clean, the inflation pressure isn't in the underlying economy, it's in the energy line that's flowing through to wholesale and from there to retail. Six days before Warsh's first FOMC, the print does the work of confirming the committee won't cut.

Mexico ran the other way Mexico's INEGI reported May headline inflation at 3.94% year-over-year, below the 4.03% consensus and the second consecutive month of declines. The print drops the country below the upper edge of Banxico's 3% plus-or-minus-one target band for the first time in months. Core inflation eased to 4.19%, the fourth straight decline, still above target but moving the right direction. Banxico is on pause through the rest of the year per the market's pricing, and for cross-border shippers, the asymmetry between the US and Mexican policy paths is the rate environment they'll plan Q3 in.

Carrier PSS on the Asia-Europe trade hit in two waves this week, with Asia-Med running higher than Asia-North Europe on the underlying FAK.

Source: Drewry, carrier announcements June 2026.

The surcharge layer is where the carriers are taking back the margin they couldn't get from contract rates negotiated in Q1. Shippers running Asia-origin containers into North American DCs through June and July should expect the surcharge stack to outlast the spot rate move, and should ask their forwarders for the line-by-line breakdown before they sign the next booking.

The Mexico calendar runs through the World Cup The tournament kicks off tonight at 20:00 UTC, México vs the second-place playoff team from the African qualifying path at Estadio Banorte. Eighteen public watch sites across Mexico for the people who can't get into CDMX. The King of Spain made the trip to Guadalajara, where Spain plays its group stage. Most other heads of state cancelled, which tells you something about the current Mexico-Europe optics, but doesn't change the fact that the country has six weeks of international media attention starting tonight and Ebrard's negotiating team in Washington next week.

Ebrard's framing for Round 2 Mexico's economy secretary, before Round 1 closed: "What do we want? No tariffs. But they say, 'No, well, we want tariffs, tariffs, tariffs.'" The line that sits underneath that one is the structural argument Mexico keeps making, "the only country that has 85% of exports today without tariffs is us and Canada. Everyone else is paying something." That's the position Ebrard's team walks into Washington with on Monday, and it's the position USTR is going to have to push against without breaking the trilateral framing Sheinbaum's government has been building since March.

China is exporting the oil shock through purchasing China's PMI Prices of Purchased Materials index sat at 60.5 in May, elevated since the Iran conflict started in February. The number says Chinese manufacturers are paying more for inputs and passing it through to output prices, which then lands on US and Mexican importers' invoices when the containers arrive. Combined with the diesel layer on the Mexican side, where pump prices hit 30 pesos per liter in some regions in March and toll rates on key corridors moved up 3.5 to 4% year-to-date, the cost base for anyone moving Asia-origin goods through Mexican ports into US warehouses is moving in three places at once.

BLACKETT.