Freight Prices
SP, May 25th 2009

The FMB dated as of May 21st, 2009, points out to a general plunge in prices of all raw materials used to manufacture fertilizers. However, the same publication features a report on freights that points out to a certain stability in prices, which continue to be high.

According to FMB data, the high prices of international freights are supported mainly by the high demand for iron ore and for Brazilian grains from China.
However, articles from other sources say otherwise. One of them, published by the New York Times, written by Keith Bradsher called my attention. It tells that there are currently over 735 vessels anchored in Singapore, according to the live tracking service Aislive, of Lloyd´s Register - Fairplay Research, waiting for cargo.

We are aware that the origin of this problem is the world crisis that caused the global trade to drop dramatically. China had its exports reduced by 22.6% between April 2008 and April 2009; the Philippines, had its exports reduced by 30.9% compared to the same period in 2008 and the United States had a decline of 2.4%, also in March 2009.

According to H. Carkson and Company, a London transportation broker, currently, the cost per day of an iron ore cargo ship is US$ 25,000.00, while in 2008 it reached the daily price of US$ 300,000.00. (the cost/day amount is the value that determines the cost of freight per ton).

Singapore is not the only place where vessels are waiting for cargo; the same thing is happening in Gibraltar, Rotterdam and other Asian ports.

We hope to God our fertilizer producers are benefitted from these lower prices of freights, when they replenish their inventories, as of July, and that the benefits, going through the chain, will reach our farmers, so that the new Brazilian crops of 2009/2010 will have freights and raw materials at costs much lower than the outrageous prices paid in 2008/2009.

Elizabeth Chagas

 
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  After working for 30 years in the agribusiness and logistics areas, executive Elizabeth Chagas, attentive to the development and potential of the Brazilian agribusiness, noted that, to that time, small and medium-sized rural producers did not have at their disposal consulting services to meet their demands in their expertise areas which are import, export and domestic and international logistics... [more]  
   
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