The bunker surcharge is a surcharge on the freight reflecting fluctuations in
the price of fuel, aimed at ensuring that shipping lines are not out of pocket
as a result of such fluctuations. The need for this surcharge arose suddenly
in 1974 when oil prices quadrupled. Fuel then became a significant element
in the shipowner’s costs (to a lesser extent it still is, although, because of the
high prices reached by bunker prices, shipowners have striven to find ways of
reducing consumption).
