By Lisa Baertlein
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) -U.S. ocean shipping company Matson has paid $6.4 million in port fees to China since they were implemented on October 14, CEO Matt Cox said on Tuesday.
President Donald Trump and President Xi Jinping last week agreed to put those tit-for-tat levies on pause for 12 months, starting on November 10. Media outlets in China had reported that Hawaii-based Matson, one of a handful of global shipping firms with U.S.-built and -flagged vessels, was the first to pay the fees
in China.
Matson expects the U.S. Trade Representative and the China Ministry of Transport to publish specific instructions, including any refund programs, regarding port entry fees shortly, Cox said on the company's quarterly earnings call.
Early this year, the Trump administration announced plans to levy fees on China-linked ships to loosen the country's grip on the global maritime industry and bolster U.S. shipbuilding - a move vessel operators warned would disrupt trade flows and ultimately drive up costs for consumers. China retaliated with fees on ships with links to the United States, and started charging them on October 14 - the same day U.S. fees went into effect.
"This is a welcome development," Cox said of the deal struck between the leaders of the world's largest economies, which also trimmed U.S. tariffs on Chinese goods and put China's rare earth export curbs on hold.
If the levies had not been put on hold, Matson could have paid $80 million annually in port fees in both 2026 and 2027, Cox said.
China's state-owned COSCO container shipping line was most exposed to U.S. port fees, which analysts said could cost the firm $1.5 billion annually.
(Reporting by Lisa Baertlein in Los Angeles; Editing by Chris Reese and Matthew Lewis)
