. The agreements are reached on a company-by-company basis, not collectively.</p>
<p>
At a recent meeting with Australian and NZ exporters, shipping lines indicated they would be seeking further increases of up to A$300 per 20-foot container and up to A$450 per 40-foot container for 2011.</p>
<p>
The negotiations are important in setting the cost framework for exporting meat products to the US market, relative to other export markets, for the next 12 months. That framework is already out of sync because of current exchange rates between the A$ and US$.</p>
<p>
In other shipping news, industry journal Lloyd’s List recently reported that container shipping operators plan to spend AS$10 billion repositioning empty maritime shipping containers worldwide in 2011. That cost burden is encouraging a reassessment of the ‘grey box’ concept: the idea of a common pool of containers for use by any shipping line at any time, as a solution to getting more efficiency in the movement of containers – both chilled, used for perishable items like boxed beef, and general.</p>
<p>
Lloyds suggested the number of idle/inactive container vessels around the world currently stands at 147 ships with a combined capacity of 356,000 teu (20-foot container equivalents). Compare that with the same assessment this time last year when the figure reached four times that amount, at <a href=)
1.5 million teu, during the height of the Global Financial Crisis.
Export
Big Jump in Shipping Costs
Jon Condon 15/04/2011
1.5 million teu, during the height of the Global Financial Crisis.