China's wave of commodity buying fuelling cargo shipping prices

[Massacure]

LONDON (AFP) - World freight shipping prices, particularly the cost of transporting dry raw materials, are steaming ahead at record levels, powered mainly by China's insatiable demand for bulk levels of imported commodities

The Baltic Dry Index, measuring the shipment of dry bulk commodities on 24 routes around the world, shot to 6,134 points last week, the highest level since its inception on London's Baltic Exchange in 1985.

The Baltic Panamax Index, comprising seven dry bulk routes, climbed to 6,110 points last week, a record peak since its launch in 1998.

James Leake, senior analyst at the J. E. Hyde shipping brokerage firm, said China's voracious demand for iron ore was primarily driving freight prices.

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=1519&ncid=732&e=1&u=/afp/20041205/bs_afp/britain_china_shipping_price_commodities_sector_economy

[hedda_foil]

1. They don't need us to consume anymore.

The American citizen's role in the corporatist world has been to consume, consume, consume. As long as we consumed enough and paid enough for our endless consumption, we were allowed to make enough to pay for the stuff of our consumption.

They found a way around us. We're no longer needed to work to pay for the goods we were trained to consume. Bye Bye American Pie.