Topic “freight rates” — Exporter Magazine

Rising fuel prices, tumbling freight rates, piracy and now radiation fears will make this year one of the most difficult in decades for the maritime industry, forcing some shipping companies out of business, according to a Reuters report carried by mb.com.ph. The report cited Clarkson Plc, the world’s biggest shipbroker, saying a total of 38 capesizes, carriers three times the size of the Statue of Liberty, will be demolished this year. Calling it a “voluntary guideline contract programme” for 2011-12, the TSA recommended rate increases of US$400 per (NZD$521) 40-foot container (FEU) for cargo moving to the U.S. West Coast and $600 per FEU for all other cargo. The hikes for containers from Asia to US east coast ports and to US intermodal points moving through or via US east coast ports are: US$640 (NZD$832) per TEU, $800 per FEU and $900 per 40-foot high-cube. A.P. Moller-Maersk issued the strongest sign yet of a turnaround in the shipping industry on Wednesday, forecasting it expects to turn a record profit of around USD$5 billion (NZD$6.4 billion) this year on surging ocean container volume and freight rates, according to the Journal of Commerce. Asian governments’ failure to act has given shipping lines the freedom to collaborate to impose sharply higher rates. The Asian Shippers Council said its members have had to put up with ridiculous surcharges – a peak season surcharge outside the traditional peak season and emergency bunker surcharge even when bunker prices are stable. Ocean container carriers pulled around 100,000 20-foot equivalent units of capacity from the Asia to North Europe route during the Chinese vacation week as freight rates decline rapidly on weaker-than-expected cargo demand, according to the Journal of Commerce citing a report by Alphaliner.