IN Brief:
- London Gateway's import Energy Adjustment Mechanism charge rises by £5.37 to £31.88 per laden container.
- Southampton's equivalent charge increases by £4.63 to £27.70 per laden import container.
- Both changes take effect on 1 November 2026, adding another cost variable for UK container importers.
Maersk will increase Energy Adjustment Mechanism charges on laden import containers moving through DP World London Gateway and DP World Southampton from 1 November 2026. The London Gateway charge will rise by £5.37 to £31.88 per container, while Southampton’s equivalent fee will increase by £4.63 to £27.70.
The revisions amount to increases of around one-fifth at both terminals compared with the current charges, adding another identifiable cost line for businesses routing containerised imports through two of Britain’s major deep-sea gateways. Maersk states that the charges will be invoiced accordingly and may be backdated where applicable. DP World may also adjust the mechanism with one month’s notice.
The present rates were introduced from 1 May, when London Gateway’s charge moved to £26.51 and Southampton’s to £23.07. The November changes therefore represent another adjustment within the same year rather than the introduction of a new tariff mechanism, giving importers a relatively short interval between cost revisions.
For cargo owners, the commercial impact enters the landed-cost calculation alongside ocean freight, terminal handling, customs, haulage, detention, demurrage, storage, and inland transport. Individual surcharges can appear modest beside the headline sea-freight rate, but repeated movements become material across regular container volumes and can make comparisons between routes less straightforward than a carrier’s base rate suggests.
At London Gateway, the £5.37 increase would add £5,370 across 1,000 laden import containers if all other conditions remained unchanged. The equivalent Southampton increase would add £4,630 across the same volume. Those figures are simple illustrations of the tariff movement rather than forecasts, but they show why relatively small per-container revisions attract attention inside large import programmes.
Container logistics pricing is frequently shaped by this accumulation of smaller charges. Procurement teams can negotiate a competitive ocean rate and still see the total door-to-door cost increase through terminal, energy, equipment, documentation, security, congestion, or inland adjustments. Maintaining an accurate surcharge register is therefore necessary if routes and carriers are to be compared on a consistent landed-cost basis.
The new rates are unlikely to determine port choice on their own. London Gateway and Southampton serve different vessel services, inland destinations, rail connections, depots, and customer concentrations, while the cost of moving a container from the quay to its final destination can outweigh a modest difference in terminal charges. The calculation changes when tariff movements coincide with congestion, inland capacity shortages, service changes, or significantly different haulage distances.
The 1 November start date also places the revision into the latter part of the peak-season cycle, when manufacturing and retail importers may still be handling elevated volumes. Companies working through freight forwarders or integrated logistics providers will need to establish how the adjustment passes through existing contracts, particularly where quotations were agreed before September but containers arrive after the new tariff takes effect.
Visibility becomes more important where several companies sit between the cargo owner and terminal. A port charge may be collected through a shipping line, forwarder, or logistics provider while the importer receives a consolidated invoice. Separating the underlying tariff movement from any commercial mark-up makes it easier for procurement teams to update forecasts and identify which parts of a door-to-door price have actually changed.
The mechanism’s ability to change with one month’s notice also makes the charge a continuing planning variable rather than a fixed annual figure. Importers using long-term budgets can model the November rates, but they cannot assume those numbers will remain unchanged throughout subsequent shipment cycles. The tariff therefore needs to remain connected to live transport-cost data rather than being set once in an annual procurement spreadsheet.
Neither £31.88 nor £27.70 changes the economics of a UK import chain by itself. The pressure comes through accumulation, with each terminal and transport adjustment adding another line to the cost of moving a container from origin to destination. From November, London Gateway and Southampton users have one more increase to include in that calculation.
