The Westbound Transpacific Stabilization Agreement (WTSA) has adopted Bunkerworld's prices for its new surcharge calculations.

WTSA is a 10-member research and discussion group of container lines serving the US-Asia trade.

Working with the WTSA, Bunkerworld will now show a price on the Bunkerworld prices page every Monday and the WTSA website for the West Coast and East Coast for key grade IFO380.

Calculations are based on average prices for Hong Kong/Los Angeles and Hong Kong/New York respectively, for the listed date.

WTSA started using these prices on October 1. Bunkerworld will also show 6 months of historical weekly prices, as well as quarterly averages for 2007, which will allow users to track the change in prices over time. This historical data is for informational purposes only as the WTSA website already has the previous prices used for its calculations.

Effective October 1, the new WTSA surcharge formula will gradually replace the current one and provides for quarterly fuel price calculation and adjustment to charge levels and is generally to be implemented in member line tariffs commencing October 1, and as new contracts are signed.

It now enables customers to quickly and easily access weekly bunker fuel prices over the internet; uses fewer loading ports in its calculation; bases the calculation on a set of clear, simple assumptions; updates charge tiers to better reflect fuel price sensitivity relative to carrier costs; and establishes separate charge levels for West Coast and East Coast sailings.

The new Bunker Surcharge Indices page is available without a subscription and can be accessed by following this link or via the Bunker prices homepage.

The page can also be accessed via the WTSA website, which also contains all the details of the new surcharges, via this link.