Higher freight rates and delivery delays frustrate buyers

• Autores: Yoke Wong
• Localización: Industrial Minerals, ISSN 0019-8544, Nº. 594, 2017 (Ejemplar dedicado a: Junio)
• Idioma: inglés
• Texto completo no disponible (Saber más ...)
• Resumen

  • Container shipping costs increasing since end-2016; Uptrend expected to stay in the near-term; Delays and limited vessels availability Rising freight rates over the past few months amid reduced vessels availabilities have delayed minerals shipments and many are expecting the logistical disruptions to continue in the months ahead.

    Container shipping costs from China have been increasing almost on a monthly basis since the end of last year, with some shippers facing difficulty securing vessels' space for delivery, a number of traders and consumers told IM.

    As China is one of the largest industrial minerals suppliers, the higher freight rate has contributed to an increase in cost across a number of minerals, including fluorspar, calcined bauxite, brown fused alumina and magnesia.

    According to one fluorspar buyer in India, the shipping cost from Southern China to India's Nhava Sheva for a 20-feet container (fcl), which has a maximum weight-load of about 27 tonnes, has more than doubled to $600/fcl in May, compared to $250-300/fcl in April.

    While rates from China to Europe were last quoted at $1150-1200/fcl for delivery in May, up 20-30% from the previous month, a Europe-based minerals distributor said.

    Rising freight rate was mainly due to "a combination of a shortage of containers and really rapid Chinese import growth," said analyst James Frew from London-based shipping consultancy MSI.

    The uptrend for the past five months followed depressed freight rates over the past few years as vessel supply outstripped weak shipping demand. But the bankruptcy of South Korea's Hanjin Shipping, the world's seventh-largest container carrier, in August 2016 removed a large numbers of vessels from service, disrupting trade routes and in turn lifted freight rates.

    Although Frew expects the rapid price increase to unwind quickly, in general, MSI expects the freight rates to trend up in the medium term.