(Cargonews Asia)
The cost of shipping consumer goods from Asia to Canada is surging, with another price increase kicking in Sunday, as freight forwarders face a shortage of containers this summer and fall, reported The Globe and Mail.
"This is traditionally the peak season for imports coming from China to Canada," said Perry Lo, president of Canaan Transport Group Inc, a freight forwarding firm based in Mississauga, Ontario. "And now we face a huge price hike." Lo's company, which serves as an intermediary between ocean-going vessel owners and retailers, will have to pay an extra US$900 for each larger-sized container transported, starting this Sunday. The increase comes on top of $1,500 in new charges since February, raising the total cost of importing each container to more than $6,000 – nearly triple the rates from early 2009, when the recession crushed global shipping. [...]
"The container prices are going up, up, up," said Ruth Snowden, executive director of the Canadian International Freight Forwarders Association. Read more here.
