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Hawaii's leading ocean shipper, Matson Navigation Co. has announced that it is decreasing its fuel surcharge for the fifth consecutive time.

As a result of continuing declines in bunker prices, the shipping firm has said that it will decrease the surcharge for shipments to Hawaii by 5.5 percentage points to 19.5 percent.

The fuel surcharge for its Guam/Micronesia service is also being lowered by the same amount, from 26.5 percent to 21 percent.

Matson said this represented a reduction of between $120 and $200 per container for customers.

The latest surcharge rates are due to come into effect on November 16th.

Below is a summary of the fuel surcharges announced by Matson since January this year for its Hawaii service.

16/11/2008: 19.50 %

02/11/2008: 25.00 %

19/10/2008: 27.00 %

12/10/2008: 33.00 %

21/09/2008: 37.50 %

31/08/2008: 42.25 %

13/07/2008: 38.25 %

06/04/2008: 33.75 %

04/02/2008: 31.5 %