A rate hike for steamship companies? Are you kidding?

There is no doubt that steamship companies that transport containers of furniture to U.S. ports are being hammered by the recession, but a recent effort to push through huge rate increases isn’t going to help their plight.

In fact, the effort is almost laughable.

A consortium of companies that operate routes between Asia and the U.S. says its members need an increase of $500 per 40-foot container — about a 30% jump from current prices. Plus, they want to implement a quarterly fuel surcharge that would add another $188 for containers going to the West Coast and $385 for East Coast-bound containers.

And if that’s not enough, the shippers group, known formally as the Transpacific Stabilization Agreement, says it also is studying the implementation of a peak-season surcharge that would be added for containers shipped in July, August, September and October.

The last time I checked, this country was in the midst of the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression, and containerized shipments of furniture this year were projected to be 16.5% below 2008. And these guys are trying to get a price hike of more than 30%?

Good luck with that.