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Cost of shipping commodities overseas higher

A shipping expert says the cost of sending commodities overseas has risen.

Martin Faubion with Pacific Chartering Services tells Brownfield that sending 74-thousand tons of corn or soybeans from New Orleans to China through the Panama Canal would cost around 34 dollars a ton today, and that doesn’t count the cost of getting the grain to New Orleans.  Rates were even higher topping 40 dollars a ton earlier this year.

He says coal and steel shipments are up worldwide.  That means agricultural commodity shippers are paying more and using smaller ships.  The International Grain Council says shipping grain to Japan from the U.S. Gulf of Mexico ports ranged from 34 to 44 dollars a ton this year, up 16% over the previous year.

Faubion says the shipping industry has made a much-needed recovery after the shipping market crashed in late 2008.  That recovery is bad news, though, for ag producers struggling with their own depressed markets.

Faubion says there is more demand now for ships bringing the shipping costs up.  He says several ships now serve India’s growing economy moving products between India’s ports, and there are also 150 ships anchored in China unable to unload coal because of new regulations.

 

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