After the Chinese countermeasures came into effect, American cruise ships were frightened.

On October 15, the U.S. "RIVIERA" luxury cruise ship, as originally planned, should have stopped at the port of Huangpu Jiang, as a result of which it suddenly turned a 90-degree curve, moving straight toward South Korea's Busan.

On the radio, the captain's slightly helpless notice came: "Due to the adjustment of port policy, the scheduled stop in Shanghai was cancelled, and the next stop was changed to Busan."

No one knows that this long-awaited trip died only because of a port fee of 11.67 million yuan.

"RIVIERA" belongs to the U.S. Norwegian Cruise Holding Company, net tonnage of 29.175 tons, in accordance with the new rules implemented by China on October 14, the one stop at the Shanghai port will have to pay this money.

What makes cruise companies even more difficult is that this money has to be paid up to 5 times a year. After the charging standard rises to 1,120 yuan/net ton in 2028, the annual cost will soar to 163 million yuan, and the net profit of a luxury cruise ship for a single voyage is usually only 2 to 3 million yuan, which is equivalent to the total profit of 50 voyages.

Half a year ago, the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative published the results of the 301 survey on April 17, introducing tariff measures for China's maritime and shipbuilding fields, and clearly charging additional money from October 14 on Chinese operating ships and Chinese-built ships that are stationed in the U.S. port.

Among them, Chinese shipowners' vessels start at $50 per net tonne, then increase three years afterwards, each vessel receives a maximum of five times a year.

HSBC calculated at the time that COSCO Shipping alone would have to pay US$1.5 billion per year, and the annual increase in costs for the entire industry exceeded US$2.1 billion.

As a reciprocal countermeasure, after revising the International Maritime Transport Regulations on September 28th, China's Ministry of Transport simultaneously implemented the Implementation Measures for Collecting Special Port Fees for American Ships on October 14th.

The new regulations cover five categories of U.S. -related ships: owned by U.S. companies, operated by the United States, owned by the United States more than 25%, flying U.S. flags, and built in the United States, all subject to additional fees.

The tariff standard increased in four-year stages, in 2025 400 yuan / net tonne, on April 17, 2026 to 640 yuan, in 2027, 880 yuan, in 2028 directly to 1120 yuan, also a maximum of 5 times a year.

Interestingly, the new rule contains a clear exemption clause: ships built in China and airborne vessels only to repair ships can be exempted.

This is not a random rule, 55% of the global shipbuilding capacity is in China, the U.S. shipbuilding capacity is less than 0.1%, which is equivalent to the policy leverage to guide global shipping enterprises to prioritize Chinese shipbuilders.

Ship repair orders in Shanghai Port have recently increased by 19% year-on-year, and many shipping companies have deliberately adjusted their itineraries to avoid the exemption policy.

Today, ¡°RIVIERA¡± is the first ¡°circumference¡± after the implementation of the new rules.

The internal cost accounting table of Novozhen Company shows that if it calls in Shanghai as originally planned, plus the expenses of the previous Japanese port, this voyage will directly change from profit to loss.

The company can only urgently change the route, only to handle passenger refunds, compensation for wrong work costs almost $ 3 million, and have to pay an additional $ 500,000 for the burning fuel.

In fact, the affected is more than a real family.

The world¡¯s three largest cruise companies, Carnival, Royal Caribbean and Norwegian, are all American companies, which control most of the world¡¯s cruise market, and China has always been their ¡°shake money tree.¡±

In 2023, the world's cruise ships will receive 230 million passengers, with China accounting for 38 million, a full 16.5%; the per capita consumption of China tourists will be 6800 yuan, 23% higher than the global average.

According to the Royal Caribbean Financial Report 2024, China¡¯s revenue accounts for 22% of its overseas operations, which is the fastest growing region.

But now this "cash cow" has to charge a "management fee".

Royal Caribbean has five long-term cruise ships running Chinese routes, according to the 2025 standard, the annual special port charges will have to pay 2.9 billion yuan, and the net profit of the Chinese region will be compressed by 18% to 25%.

To ease the pressure, the company announced on March 13 that it would replace $200 million in debt-transferable funds with cash and stocks in an attempt to get rid of funds by optimizing its financial structure, but faced with the year-on-year rise in port charges, these operations were just cupcake pay.

After the Sino-US ship toll war broke out, whether to pay or not to pay became a dead proposition for US-funded cruise ships.

If you pay, the cost can only be passed on to the tourists. After the ticket price increases, the customers will definitely flow to European or Chinese-funded cruise ships that do not need to pay the money; if you don't pay, you will have to be diverted like the "Riviera", but how can it be so easy to adjust the route?

Novi Zhen's "Joy" originally ran the "Tokyo-Shanghai-Xiamen-Singapore" route. After canceling the China port, it was either shortened to "Tokyo-Singapore," the attraction of the trip was greatly reduced, or it was diverted to Jeju and Busan, and the extra voyage would burn 20% more fuel.

The chain reaction, triggered by 11.67 million port charges, has spread to the U.S. mainland.

Shareholders at the Nokia phone conference on October 16 exploded, asking the management why they didn¡¯t respond to policy changes early; the Royal Caribbean trade unions also issued a statement concerned that the decline in revenue in the Chinese market affected local shipbuilding and maintenance jobs.

U.S. tourists who have been cancelled are more straightforward to file a joint complaint on social media platforms, asking the U.S. government to come up with a solution.

What the industry is most concerned about now is whether there is any progress in the exemption application submitted by the Shanghai Transportation Commission.

It is that in order to preserve the cruise industry chain, Shanghai is applying for a fee policy for some international cruise ships, but as of October 17, no response has been received.

The Royal Caribbean's "Ocean Spectrum" is in the middle, the cruise ship running the Shanghai to Okinawa route on October 20 will reach the port, and the company is still hesitant whether to pay or change the route.

For US-funded cruise ships, the current choice is becoming clearer and clearer.

Either accept the charging cost and retain customers by optimizing services; or adjust the equity structure to meet the exemption conditions; if you neither want to pay money nor are you willing to change, you can only slowly withdraw from this market, which accounts for 16.5% of the world's passenger flow.

After all, China's visa-free policy is still continuing, and 13 coastal cruise ports are waiting to pick up passengers. If anyone is missing, someone will always fill the vacancy.