Record freight prices choking NZ exporters

Record freight prices choking NZ exporters
Rough sailing: Sanford struggles to get core product to markets (Supplied)
Brent Melville
Already record high global container shipping spot rates are sailing into uncharted waters as demand outstrips container availability. Commodities intelligence group S&P Platts said this week that container spot rates had spiked above US$15,000 for forty-foot-equivalent-units (FEU) exiting Asia for the US, as firms grow increasingly concerned about shifting cargo out of full Asian warehouses and factories. Those prices are more than fivefold the US$2,550/FEU of a year ago. This is adding pressure to rates paid by trans-Tasman...

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