{"id":125848,"date":"2026-03-17T06:40:54","date_gmt":"2026-03-17T09:40:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/shipping.einnews.com\/article\/899969742"},"modified":"2026-03-17T06:40:54","modified_gmt":"2026-03-17T09:40:54","slug":"consumers-set-to-pay-the-price-as-soaring-fuel-costs-hit-shipping-industry-experts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/2026\/03\/17\/consumers-set-to-pay-the-price-as-soaring-fuel-costs-hit-shipping-industry-experts\/","title":{"rendered":"Consumers set to pay the price as soaring fuel costs hit shipping industry: experts"},"content":{"rendered":"
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MONTREAL \u2014 Rising fuel prices caused by the war in Iran have begun to raise costs for Canadian shippers and ripple out to consumers, as fallout from the fighting filters into the broader economy.<\/p>\n

The price of heavy fuel oil \u2014 used to power container ships and other large vessels \u2014 at the world\u2019s top 20 refuelling hubs has nearly doubled since the U.S. and Israel launched attacks in late February, according to figures from data platform Ship & Bunker.<\/p>\n

Container shipping rates have started to rise in turn, increasing 12 per cent in the two weeks ended last Thursday, according to the Drewry world container index.<\/p>\n

As the strikes spiralled into a regional conflict, major shipping companies halted voyages through the Strait of Hormuz as well as the Suez Canal, with Red Sea-bound vessels now rerouting around Africa\u2019s Cape of Good Hope at a greater cost in fuel, labour and travel time.<\/p>\n

The higher shipping costs, combined with soaring diesel fuel rates that have hit trucking firms and railways, are expected to force importers, retailers and manufacturers to raise their prices, resulting in more expensive purchases at the checkout counter, experts say.<\/p>\n

North America is more insulated from price shocks than Europe or the Middle East, but the disruption still spells \u201cbad news for consumers and shipping companies alike,\u201d especially if it drags on, said Laval University business professor Yan Cimon.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s more expensive to ship stuff around, not just energy but containers,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cTypically it would be more of a European concern, but Canada is affected because a lot of what we consume or use often transits through Europe,\u201d he said. Affected products range from high-tech machinery and electronics to pharmaceuticals and refined chemicals.<\/p>\n

The Persian Gulf is also a critical source of global fertilizer. That means farmers are seeing their costs soar in real time as diesel and fertilizer prices leap.<\/p>\n

Nearly one-third of urea, a widely-used nitrogen fertilizer, passes through the Strait of Hormuz, according to Mary-Jane Bennett, a transportation consultant based in Vancouver.<\/p>\n

Many farmers in Canada have already bought fertilizers for the spring planting season, but there are concerns about purchases later in the year.<\/p>\n

\u201cCanadian farmers are going to be hit hard,\u201d Bennett said, noting that urea prices have ballooned by nearly 50 per cent since the conflict began. \u201cIt\u2019s fairly clear that what we\u2019re headed toward is food inflation.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rail transport costs are also increasing. Canadian National Railway Co. hiked its fuel surcharge on domestic container shipments to 30 per cent from 21 per cent before the war, and to 38 per cent from 26 per cent for cross-border cargo. The surcharges are based on diesel fuel prices.<\/p>\n

Consumers are already feeling the jump in the price of oil and its derivatives \u2014 gasoline, jet fuel and diesel \u2014 at the pumps and on their plane fares.<\/p>\n

The CEO of Danish shipping giant Maersk told the BBC last week that higher fuel prices will be passed on to the company\u2019s clients and ultimately \u201con to the consumers.\u201d<\/p>\n

Just a month earlier, Maersk was among the major shipping companies to launch a tentative return \u2014 now called off \u2014 to the Red Sea, where fears of Houthi attacks have reared up once again more than two years after the Iran-backed militant group began to target commercial vessels off the coast of Yemen.<\/p>\n

The ripple effects have begun to hit Canadian shores, with many ship arrivals now postponed.<\/p>\n

\u201cSupply chains are highly interconnected, and prolonged disruptions in any region will create impacts elsewhere over time, such as vessel delays or schedule adjustments, which are now starting to develop,\u201d said Lori MacLean, a spokeswoman for the Halifax Port Authority, in an email.<\/p>\n

The war will mean \u201cfurther weaponization of trade and shatter hopes of a large-scale return of container shipping to the Red Sea in 2026,\u201d said Peter Sand, chief analyst at freight analytics firm Xeneta, in a news release on the day the U.S. and Israel attacked Iran, which launched retaliatory strikes in turn.<\/p>\n

Airfreight, which has seen demand rise amid the dearth of container ship voyages, is also costing more as aviation fuel prices skyrocket.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019re going to start having money tacked on to making any transport movement,\u201d said John Corey, president of the Freight Management Association of Canada.<\/p>\n

\u201cUltimately, that\u2019s going to flow through and the consumer is going to pay for that.\u201d<\/p>\n

This report by The Canadian Press was first published March 17, 2026.<\/p>\n

Christopher Reynolds, The Canadian Press<\/p>\n

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… spiralled into a regional conflict, major shipping<\/span> companies halted voyages through the Strait … per cent for cross-border cargo<\/span>. The surcharges are based on diesel … ,\u00e2\u0080\u009d said John Corey, president of the Freight<\/span> Management Association of Canada. \u00e2\u0080\u009cUltimately …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-125848","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","wpcat-1-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/125848","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=125848"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/125848\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=125848"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=125848"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=125848"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}