Hapag-Lloyd Has Two August GRIs. Origin and Gate-In Date Decide Which Applies

Hapag-Lloyd has two new General Rate Increase / General Rate Adjustment filings taking effect on North America cargo in August, both at US$1,000 per container. They look similar. They do not cover the same origins.

The 1 August filing applies to Indian Subcontinent and Pakistan cargo moving to the United States and Canada. The 15 August filing adds the Middle East to that scope. Both use container gate-in as the effective-date trigger, which means the rate question is not simply when you booked or when the vessel sails. It starts with where the container originates and when it gates in.

There is another reason not to read either filing in isolation. Hapag-Lloyd has issued a series of GRI/GRA announcements on this trade throughout 2026, with changing origin scopes, effective dates and, in July, different amounts by destination coast. The notices are not a cumulative ledger you can add together. They tell you which adjustment was announced for a particular scope and date; the operative tariff still has to be checked for the shipment in front of you.

The two August filings

Effective gate-in	Origin scope	Destination	Announced adjustment
1 August 2026	Indian Subcontinent & Pakistan	USA & Canada, all coasts	US$1,000 per container
15 August 2026	Indian Subcontinent, Pakistan & Middle East	USA & Canada	US$1,000 per container

Hapag-Lloyd GRI/GRA announcements for August 2026. The 1 August filing applies to containers gated in full from that date. The 15 August filing was reported by Container News as applying to containers gated in from 15 August. Both cover 20ft and 40ft dry, reefer and special containers, including high cube equipment.

The scope difference is the Middle East. Indian Subcontinent and Pakistan cargo is included in both August announcements. Middle East cargo is included only in the 15 August filing.

That does not mean a Middle East box gating in on 5 August has no GRI/GRA exposure. Hapag-Lloyd already had a separate filing effective 15 July covering Indian Subcontinent, Pakistan and Middle East cargo. That filing announced US$1,500 per container to the US and Canadian East and Gulf Coasts and US$2,100 to the West Coast, valid until further notice.

So the August question is more complicated than “before or after 15 August.” For Middle East cargo, you need to know what tariff level is actually in force between the 15 July filing and the new 15 August adjustment. For Indian Subcontinent and Pakistan cargo, you also have overlapping announcements effective 1 and 15 August.

Do not add the filings together

Hapag-Lloyd has repeatedly announced GRI/GRAs on this trade during 2026. Confirmed filings include a US$1,000 adjustment effective 15 March, another US$1,000 from 15 May, US$1,000 filings from 1 and 15 June, and further changes through July and August. The origin scope has also moved between Indian Subcontinent and Pakistan only, and Indian Subcontinent, Pakistan and the Middle East.

What you cannot do is add those announcements mechanically. Six US$1,000 filings do not establish that the lane became US$6,000 more expensive. A GRI/GRA notice announces an adjustment against the applicable tariff structure. It does not, by itself, tell you how much of an earlier increase was implemented, maintained, discounted, replaced or subsequently changed.

The July sequence makes that especially clear. Hapag-Lloyd announced US$1,000 per container for Indian Subcontinent and Pakistan cargo from 1 July. A separate filing effective 15 July then covered Indian Subcontinent, Pakistan and Middle East cargo at US$1,500 to the East and Gulf Coasts and US$2,100 to the West Coast. From 1 August, another US$1,000 adjustment was announced for Indian Subcontinent and Pakistan. From 15 August, another US$1,000 filing brings the Middle East back into the stated scope.

Those figures are announcements, not a rate ladder. Treating them as one produces a number the carrier never published.

Gate-in is the date to watch

Hapag-Lloyd keys these filings to container gate-in. The 1 August advisory explicitly applies to containers gated in full from 1 August. The latest 15 August filing is likewise reported as applying to containers gated in from that date.

That makes cargo sitting near an effective-date threshold worth checking. A container from India or Pakistan expected to gate in on 31 July but actually gating in on 3 August moves into the stated scope of the 1 August GRI/GRA. A Middle East container moving across the 15 August threshold moves into the scope of the new filing announced for that date.

The important distinction is between entering the scope of an announced adjustment and knowing the final freight rate that will appear on the invoice. The filing tells you the first. Your applicable tariff and commercial terms determine the second.

If your team is reconciling gate-in status against filing dates across carrier portals and advisory emails, see how operations teams pull container-level shipment events across 100+ carriers into one view.

The part your rate sheet can miss

A saved line that says “ISC/ME to North America: GRI US$1,000” is now too blunt to be useful. At minimum, the August filings require you to separate origin and gate-in date. The July filing adds destination coast to that check.

What to verify	Why it matters
Origin	The 1 August filing covers Indian Subcontinent and Pakistan; the 15 August filing also includes the Middle East.
Gate-in date	The stated effective dates are tied to container gate-in, not simply booking or sailing date.
Destination coast	The 15 July filing set different amounts for East/Gulf Coast and West Coast cargo.
Current tariff level	Repeated GRI/GRA announcements cannot be added together to reconstruct the operative rate.

That is the practical lesson from the filing cadence. The problem is not that Hapag-Lloyd has announced another GRI. It is that the answer to “which GRI applies?” can change with origin, destination coast and a container event that happens after the commercial team thinks the rate has already been settled.

What to re-check before August

Separate Indian Subcontinent, Pakistan and Middle East cargo in your rate review. The two August filings do not have identical geographic scope.
Pull actual or expected gate-in dates for cargo near 1 and 15 August. Those are the stated trigger dates for the new filings.
Keep destination coast in the model. The 15 July filing differentiated East/Gulf Coast and West Coast amounts, so a single North America GRI field can hide a material difference.
Do not sum successive GRI/GRA announcements. Check the ocean tariff rate and commercial terms actually applicable to the shipment.
For Indian Subcontinent and Pakistan cargo gating in from 15 August, confirm how the new filing affects the tariff already applicable after 1 August. The announcements alone are not enough to reconstruct the final cumulative rate.

Repeated filings are useful as a warning signal, but they are a poor substitute for a live rate check. For August, the operational workflow is straightforward: identify the origin, pull the gate-in date, check the destination coast where relevant, then verify the tariff currently in force. That is the number to model.

GRI/GRA scopes, amounts and effective dates are based primarily on Hapag-Lloyd CustomerNEWS advisories published in 2026. The 15 August 2026 filing is based on Container News reporting published 15 July 2026. Hapag-Lloyd’s 1 August filing states that the US$1,000 adjustment applies to Indian Subcontinent and Pakistan cargo to USA and Canada, all coasts, for containers gated in full from 1 August. Its 15 July filing announced US$1,500 per container to the East and Gulf Coasts and US$2,100 to the West Coast for Indian Subcontinent, Pakistan and Middle East cargo. GRI/GRA announcements should not be treated as a cumulative record of the tariff level actually paid. Confirm current ocean tariff rates and applicable commercial terms with the carrier before commercial commitments.

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