New Trump port fees slam U.S. freight ship owner with $34 million bill
Last-minute changes to new port fees by the Trump administration’s U.S. Trade Representative have left a U.S.-based ocean carrier facing an estimated $34 million annual tariff bill after it was reclassified under new Section 301 program terms.
On October 14, the first day of the rate schedule, Atlantic Container Line paid $1.4 million in tariffs for its unique container ship construction. ACL’s ships carry cargo consisting of 80% shipping containers, 10% roll-on/roll off cargo (such as tractors, construction equipment and passenger cars) and 10% oversized cargo such as aircraft wings and transformers for power plants and data center machinery.
Additional changes include the fee structure for vehicle carriers, also known as roll-on/roll-off (Ro/Ro) ships, which help transport automobiles, agricultural equipment and other heavy machinery. Fees will no longer be charged according to the number of vehicles carried, but according to the net tonnage capacity of the ship. This is on top of new standard USTR port fees that went into effect Tuesday, causing broader confusion among shipowners about the potential financial hit.
The Atlantic Container Line ship carries both containers (80% capacity) and bulk cargo of various types, from tractors to aircraft wings and power plant equipment.
Atlantic Container Line
Under the USTR rule — Part 301 allows for action against internationally based discriminatory trade practices, and that investigation was launched under the Biden administration, focusing on Chinese port equipment, among other issues, and continued into Trump’s new term — an ocean liner is charged five times a year per ship. ACL ships travel along the transatlantic route and use five ships serving the US trade route in their fleet to provide weekly service.
“That’s $1.4 million a year in fees for 25 ships,” Andrew Abbott, CEO of Atlantic Container Line, told CNBC. “We are facing a total annual tariff of 34 million dollars!”
Abbott says his company has been hit hard by a bureaucratic blind spot. Of the 10% roll-on/roll-off freight ACL shipments, only one percent are passenger cars. “The ship must be classified based on the majority of the cargo we carry. These are containers. We have always been considered a Container ship. This time Customs and Border Protection changed it to a Ro/Ro container.”
You can visually see the difference between container ships and Ro/Ro ships, says Abbott.
“Traditional Ro/Ros are like floating car parks – we are not,” he said.
A large roll-on/roll-off ship docked at Lianyungang Port to load new energy vehicles for export to Lianyungang City, Jiangsu Province, China, on August 19, 2025.
Nurfoto | Nurfoto | Getty Images
In the long term, Abbott warns that if the company continues to pay the tariffs, it may not be able to conduct business properly in the U.S. and may be forced to reposition its operations, which would affect U.S.-based importers and exporters.
“The majority of the cargo we bring goes to American manufacturers as well as for export,” said Abbott. “They’re afraid they’re going to lose their main carrier now that they’re bringing this product. So there’s a lot of shaking of heads and what I would just call shock,” he said.
Abbott says his company’s exit from the market because it carries cargo that few people handle will force U.S. exporters and importers to find a charter service that will cost more money and doesn’t provide weekly service.
“To give you a simple example, a few years ago a major American automaker wanted to move its assembly line from Germany to Kentucky, and we moved it,” said Abbott. “We moved containers of parts, we moved large, very large machines. They didn’t have to charter a ship. They could ship on our ship every week while the plant in Germany was going down and the plant in Kentucky was going up. That’s a unique thing we do, but that’s going to go away and that company will no longer have that option,” he said.
The interior of an Atlantic Container Line ship containing a train car as cargo.
Atlantic Container Line
Since the new charges came into effect, ACL has been talking to its customers about tariff costs and potentially being forced to pass them on, Abbott said.
“They don’t believe it,” he said. “They never thought in 1,000 years that we would be affected. Now we’re trying to explain it to people, and the magnitude of what’s at stake is shocking people. At this point importers are dealing with tariffs and this is now on top of that and could possibly shut them down,” said Abbott.
Abbott said the surprise fee creates more uncertainty in what he describes as a “challenging economic environment.”
“This is another straw that will break the camel’s back,” he said. “We’re hoping we can talk to someone in the administration who will listen. I think we can get our point across. That should be pretty obvious.”
In an email to CNBC, a USTR spokesperson said they were investigating the matter but had not responded by the time the story was published.
If talks with the Trump administration don’t lead to a mutual understanding, “then we should start thinking seriously about reinstatement next year,” Abbott said. “It’s something we’re going to have to do, even if we don’t want to. It ends a very, very long history for a man who has had a unique service on the Atlantic trade lane that no one else has. We’ve fought all our major rivals who are 15 times bigger than us. I just hope my government doesn’t bankrupt us because we’ve fought everyone,” he added.
