Dubai: Cost of shipping doubles in the past 12 months

[phantom power]

The cost of shipping a container from Dubai to key destinations around the world has almost doubled in the past 12 months – sparking fears that rates could reach alarming levels.

Shipping a 20ft container from Jebel Ali to Rotterdam, Europe’s largest port, through Inchcape Shipping Services currently costs Dh3,300 while a 40ft unit costs Dh6,200 before port charges. In the same period last year shipping a 20ft container from Dubai to Rotterdam cost Dh1,780 while a 40ft one cost Dh3,122. Inchcape is the UAE agent for Hamburg-based Hapag-Lloyd, one of the five top container shippers.

Meanwhile, shipping a 20ft container from Jebel Ali to Shanghai in China – one of the world’s busiest ports by cargo tonnage – cost Dh360 in July 2007 but the charge now is Dh576, excluding other charges.

The increase in container shipping rates reflects rising costs in the regional and global industry resulting from increasing fuel prices, port congestion and shortage of skilled manpower.

http://www.business24-7.ae/articles/2008/7/pages/costofshippingdoublesinthepast12months.aspx

[madokie]

1. Maybe I'm nuts, lets not answer that ok, but that sounds like good news for us here

wouldn't the shipping cost at some point get to be prohibitive as for walmart etc to continue to buy all this made in china shit. I'm wanting to think that is true but don't really have a clue. I do know that I live upwind from a pretty sizeable industrial park and they have a few manufacturing plants that are in mothballs so those could be back up and be in production pretty quickly and I suspect other locals have the same situation. One of the plants has just recently went back into production from a good 12, 15 years ago or more, a fertilizer plant. In my mind I'm seeing or maybe its I'm painting a simalar picture as the summer of '91 when it became clear that Clinton was going to win the whitehouse race. I'm seeing more and more paralells to that time every day. In honor of having lived through this all before with the big dog I see lots of news of late indicating that we are in the midst of the beginning of a new era. Like I said I see that with the memory of the last one still pretty vivid in my minds eye. Links, no links just many years of observation and paying attention.

[phantom power]

2. Higher shipping costs may increase domestic manufacturing.

How that benefit compares to the negative impacts of expensive transportation, and inflation due to expensive fuels, etc, I don't know. I have a feeling that we may very well end up with domestic manufacturing, but very little of it, because nobody can afford to buy anything.

:shrug:

[hogwyld]

3. Also, hightened transport cost will affect

what we can transport (export) overseas. This transportation crisis will also deeply affect the cost of raw materials shipped here.

[madokie]

5. we don't ship a lot of finished products anywhere, its mostly raw materials we ship

so high shipping cost can be good for that because we shouldn't be shipping raw materials anywhere. Right now the cotton folks in texas are getting a huge subsidy and not one piece of cloth is made in America with any of that cotton its all shipped overseas. High fuel prices hurt but it will prove to be the leveler of the playing field we live and play on.

[madokie]

4. if the past is any indicator

pay will go up and we'll be like we were for those few years pre 2000. The difference being we'll have a bigger number of dollars go through our hands now as then. No matter what I feel the middle man will do all they can to keep some cash flow. Henry ford came to the conclusion that if he didn't start paying more money to his workers then shortly all the easy money will be made and thats not good for his long term viability as a car manufacturer. He increased the pay for his workers to a un heard of 5 bucks a day, best I remember. Of which helped to usher in the middle class. If we can only get the manufacturing back to American soil we'll be ok. it was when we shifted these enormous amounts of money going to the sheiks via fuel so as to enable the manufacturing of our goods in foreign countries that took us down this time. The turn around we are in the beginnings of today will happen quickly too, same as it did back there in the early nineties. All we have to do now is make sure Mr Obama walks through that door come January of '09. We get that and the rest will come relatively easy. Good times are coming for America once again. My worry is that we'll be so overwhelmed with the good fortune that we might allow these traitors and war criminals to walk free once again. That won't be good for our country if they remain free this time, the precedence will be set in stone.

The good part of all this is by taking us to the brink like the repubs have this time it is waking a lot of people up to what it is we had/have and how close we came to losing it and that with a few honest changes we can make this experiment called the United States of America work for all of us not just the chosen few. Yes good times is coming for us so hang on to your hat cause it might get blown off from the wind due to the fast pace, but get better we will, we are.

[JohnWxy]

6. I wonder what proportion of the cost of grain shipping costs are for those countries that import a

large part of their grain?