Consumer Prices News

China's soybean stocks are set to tighten further as delays in shipments from the United States deepen shortages of key animal feed ingredient soymeal, keeping prices at record highs.Ships carrying up to three million tonnes of U.S. soybeans which were scheduled to arrive this month and in November are likely to get delayed by about 15 to 20 days, two soybean traders told Reuters.While U.S. cargo delays are likely to weigh on benchmark Chicago soybean futures, tight soymeal supplies will buoy Chinese hog prices.

China's soybean stocks are set to tighten further as delays in shipments from the United States deepen shortages of key animal feed ingredient soymeal, keeping prices at record highs. Ships carrying up to three million tonnes of U.S. soybeans which were scheduled to arrive this month and in November are likely to get delayed by about 15 to 20 days, two soybean traders told Reuters. While U.S. cargo delays are likely to weigh on benchmark Chicago soybean futures, tight soymeal supplies will buoy Chinese hog prices.

John Ehresmann loves that the cost of shipping an ocean container from Asia to a U.S. port or buying a load of lumber has fallen back to earth.If only that were true for everything he buys — but it’s not.Some parts of his supply chain have clearly improved, said the vice president of global supply for Graco Inc, the Minneapolis-based maker of fluid handling equipment such as paint sprayers. But the complex nature of global supply chains means that companies like Graco are still struggling…

Shipping companies are transforming rust buckets into gold mines in a modern-day alchemy that could fuel already rampant inflation for years to come.The disruption to world trade caused by pandemic lockdowns and a shortage of new cargo vessels has pushed freight rates for ageing containerships to record highs.Cashing in on the boom, shipping firms are locking in long-term leases lasting three to four years, which means consumers could carry on paying the price for the surge in costs until hundreds of new ships on order come into service.Take the Synergy Oakland…

Shanghai is slowly emerging from a grueling COVID lockdown that has all but immobilized the city since March. Although Shanghai’s port, which handles one-fifth of China’s shipping volumes, has been operating throughout, it has been running at severely reduced capacity. Many shipments have either been canceled, postponed, or rerouted to other Chinese mega-ports such as Ningbo-Zhousan.With the city due to fully reopen on June 1, the port is going to be in overdrive as manufacturers try to fulfil backlogs, with serious knock-on effects around the world.

Much like the coronavirus pandemic, and the economic disruption that it has caused, a global shipping crisis looks set to go on delaying goods traffic and fueling inflation well into 2023.Shipping rarely figures in economists' inflation and GDP calculations, and companies tend to fret more about raw materials and labor costs than transportation. But that might be changing.The cost of shipping a 40-foot container (FEU) unit has eased some 15% from record highs above $11,000 touched in September, according to the Freightos FBX index.

The U.S. Federal Trade Commission will vote next week on whether it will study if supply chain disruptions have affected competition, the agency said in a statement describing the agenda as tentative.The meeting will be held on November 18, the statement said.Faced with long delays in getting goods into U.S.

U.S. manufacturing of durable goods, which has been lagging the wider recovery of the U.S. economy, hit an all-time high in June when $270.5B worth of goods was produced. This brings total manufacturing of durable goods so far this year to $1,482 billion, a 15.5% increase compared with the first half of 2020.Since the production of durable goods in the first half of 2021 is up 1.6% from the first half of 2019, this section of the industry has now officially returned to its pre-pandemic levels.Manufacturing activity is expected to have continued its growth in July…

After Hurricane Maria struck Puerto Rico with devastating force on September 20, 2017, a number of news reports claimed that the Jones Act had severely damaged the Puerto Rican economy, both over time and in the immediate aftermath of the storm. Now a new report examining the role of the Jones Act shipping industry before, in the immediate aftermath of and in the months that followed the hurricane asserts that the Jones Act fleet delivers a dedicated and reliable flow of goods…

About 500 people gathered at the Long Beach Convention Center for the event, which brings together a panel of shipping and trade experts to offer their perspectives on industry trends and how they affect the San Pedro Bay port complex. One of the panelists, Drewry Maritime Research Senior Quantitative Economist Mario Moreno, predicted Asia-U.S. trade will grow 6.8 percent in 2018, the fastest pace in more than half-a-dozen years. He also estimated the overall U.S. economy will expand 2.8 percent. While President Donald Trump and China have proposed higher tariffs, an all-out trade war between China and the United States appears unlikely, according to Moreno. “Both nations have a lot to lose,” Moreno said.

Ships exposed through GPS systems, have limited back-up; cyber insurance typically doesn't cover jamming, property damage. Shipping companies grappling with the threat of cyber attacks on vessels are finding insurance policies often fall short, officials involved in both industries say, a risk that could feed through into global prices. Digitalisation means electricity networks, emergency services, industry and agriculture are all vulnerable to hacking by criminal gangs for extortion or, for political reasons, by militant groups or foreign states. But ships are also exposed to interference through electronic navigation devices such as the Global Positioning System (GPS) and lack the backup systems airliners have to prevent crashes.

Korea's Incheon Port is rapidly emerging as a port for government stockpile imports due to a significant increase in imports of US edible soybeans. Incheon Port Authority (IPA) announced  that the Korea Agro-Fisheries & Food Trade Corporation (aT) designated Incheon Port as the exclusive port for receiving 10,000-ton container volumes through a bid announcement of the basis purchase in 2018. The volume is a 66% increase from the 6,000 tons imported via Incheon Port that aT designated as the import port when it imported a basis purchase in 2017 and a spot purchase in 2016. The import volume increased five-fold from the 2,000 tons of US edible soybeans imported by the government as its stockpile in 2015.

An Op-Ed issued by the Lake Carriers’ Association, American Great Lakes Ports Association and Great Lakes Maritime Task Force addresses the “exaggerations and inaccuracies” surrounding the Vessel Incidental Discharge Act (VIDA), and explains how the legislation will best protect the Great Lakes from aquatic nuisance species. Recently, several articles, editorials and letters have perpetuated exaggerations and inaccuracies about the Vessel Incidental Discharge Act (VIDA). We believe the public deserves the rest of the story.

A one-day strike at the Rosario grains export hub in Argentina ended on Friday after the government compelled union and company officials to enter into wage negotiations for 15 days, a union leader said. The strike began at midnight local time and ended around noon after the union agreed to the government mandate for a "reconciliation" period to settle the dispute, said Edgardo Quiroga, an official with the CGT union's San Lorenzo branch. "Operations are back to normal," he said. Rosario handles about 80 percent of Argentina's grains exports. San Lorenzo covers the northern districts of the Rosario hub where multinational companies like Bunge Ltd, Cargill and Louis Dreyfus Commodities BV have crushing plants and ports.

The benefits of offshore ports in the U.S. In many parts of the world, offshore ports are a good solution for meeting the requirements of the rapid changes in the international container and bulk shipping industry. Bigger ships, changing routes and destinations require larger and deeper ports, which port owners and operators can be confident will be capable of handling ever-increasing sizes of vessels for many years to come. One of the major challenges in the current container shipping industry is to bundle and organize capacity in the most economical way.

The rapid expansion of renewable technologies is one of the few bright spots in an otherwise bleak assessment of global progress towards low-carbon energy, the International Energy Agency (IEA) said in an annual report to the Clean Energy Ministerial (CEM). “The drive to clean up the world’s energy system has stalled,” IEA Executive Director Maria van der Hoeven told the CEM, which brings together ministers representing countries responsible for four-fifths of global greenhouse-gas emissions. To illustrate this inertia, the report, Tracking Clean Energy Progress, introduces the Energy Sector Carbon Intensity Index (ESCII), which shows how much carbon dioxide is emitted, on average, to provide a given unit of energy.

International accountant and shipping consultant Moore Stephens said many overseas companies, including some connected to shipping interests, will be among those affected by draft legislation from the U.K. government proposing changes to the taxation of U.K. residential property valued at £2m or more. Among other things, companies resident outside the U.K. will, for the first time, be liable to capital gains tax (CGT) on such property, with effect from April 6, 2013. The measures in the draft legislation include CGT at a fixed rate of 28% on  disposals of U.K.

A Sub-Committee of the Joint Maritime Commission (JMC) of the International Labour Organisation (ILO) today agreed to extend the validity of the current ILO minimum monthly wage for seafarers of US$465 to 31 December 2004. That figure became applicable on 1 January 2003. It also agreed to increase this minimum wage to US$500 effective 1 January 2005. The mechanism for setting the minimum wage for able seafarers is provided for by the ILO Seafarers' Wages, Hours of Work and the Manning of Ships Recommendation, 1996 (No. 187). The ILO minimum wage takes into consideration a formula which reflects changes in consumer prices and exchange rates against the US dollar in 49 maritime countries and areas. The application of Recommendation No.

Closing the St. Lawrence Seaway to ocean-going vessels is not the answer to ending the further introduction of aquatic invasive species (AIS) into the Great Lakes, said a study by the National Academy of Sciences. The study drew praise from the U.S. Saint Lawrence Seaway Development Corporation (SLSDC), the federal agency responsible for the passage of vessels into the Great Lakes. The study, Great Lakes Shipping, Trade, and Aquatic Invasive Species, concluded that closing the Seaway could not guarantee prevention of further invasives such as zebra and quagga mussels as non-ship-related vectors would continue to allow AIS into the Great Lakes.