Hawaii consumers and businesses could be paying much more to ship goods between the islands next year to offset losses by the state’s only regulated interisland ocean cargo transportation company.

Young Brothers LLC filed a request Wednesday with the state Public Utilities Commission to raise average rates 34%.

The proposed increase ranges from 25% for shipping containers and automobiles to 60% for goods that take up less than a whole container.

For a compact car the increase equates to an extra $66.44. For a dry container it amounts to an additional $250.50. And to ship a variety of cargo occupying up to 40 cubic feet, such as a stand-up paddleboard, it would cost an extra $29.08.

For Young Brothers the increase would generate $27 million.

Young Brothers said it needs the dramatic hike to reverse two years of financial losses amid higher operating costs and weak cargo volume.

“Steadily increasing operational costs and nearly eight years with no significant boost in revenue makes it necessary for us to reset our rates,” Paul Stevens, the company’s interim president, said in a statement. “Our priority is to ensure that customers on all islands can depend on Young Brothers for the consistent, on-time delivery and high-quality service that are hallmarks of our 100-year legacy in the islands.”

It will be up to the PUC to decide how much, if any, increase Young Brothers deserves after holding public hearings and receiving an analysis from the state Consumer Advocate.

Some Young Brothers customers were stunned by the size of the proposed increase.

“It’s going to be a pretty big impact,” said Brett Jacobson, founder and CEO of Hawaii island-based beverage maker Ola Brew Co.

Jacobson, whose company ships two or three containers of beer and other beverages weekly, said most of Ola’s profit would be erased if Young Brothers receives its requested rate hike.

“How can they legally do that?” he said.

Under PUC regulations, Young Brothers is entitled to a reasonable rate of return on its regulated operations.

In recent years the PUC has approved dramatically lower rate increases compared with what Young Brothers requested.

For instance, a 2016 request for a 4.4% increase led to a 0.1% uptick granted in 2017. And after Young Brothers sought a 13.3% hike in 2017, the PUC ruled in February that the company could increase rates only 4.3%.

Young Brothers said its rates for 40-foot containers have risen only 5% since 2014, and that during this period comparable rates for unregulated ocean cargo transportation firms Matson Inc. and Pasha Hawaii Transport Lines delivering goods from the mainland have risen about 20%.

At the same time, expenses have gone up and cargo volume has stayed close to flat for Young Brothers.

As a result, Young Brothers said, profits of $2.5 million in 2016 and $600,000 in 2017 swung to losses of $11.4 million in 2018 and $8.9 million expected this year. Next year the company projects losing $12.3 million.

These figures, however, include Young Brothers’ operations beyond its regulated interisland service. The company, an affiliate of Seattle-based Saltchuk Resources Inc., has to attribute only a portion of its total costs, revenue and profit in its justification for higher rates.

Other items factored into the company’s request for higher rates include pension costs and something associated with accelerated depreciation that Young Brothers has not previously included in a rate change application.

Young Brothers, which makes 12 weekly port calls on Oahu, Maui, Molokai, Lanai, Kauai and Hawaii island using barges towed by tugboats, said its investments included $80 million spent on four new tugs delivered since last year and $8.5 million for other equipment and infrastructure.

The new tugboats are more fuel-efficient and solved issues of mounting maintenance and costly breakdowns for four older tugs, but Young Brothers has said these efficiency gains are more than offset by rising labor costs.

Young Brothers anticipates that a rate decision could be made by the PUC about a year from now following public hearings between January and February.