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Seajet |
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Early
August |
Freight Rate Increase Alert!
Dear Customers and Friends of Seajet: You have all seen container rates drop on your imports from Europe as well as Asia. Carriers have forecasted billions of dollars in losses for 2009. They have taken unprecedented numbers of ships out of rotation, have parked them in ports all around the world and use them as storage facilities for millions of containers. Many carriers have scrapped old ships and walked away from new ships coming on line from shipyards. Thus, losing hundreds of millions of dollars in deposits. The need for revenues has forced container lines to mercilessly compete for the much lower demand for container space resulting in rates lower than seen in almost 20 years. They may now have reached a point where continuing in that fashion will simply become unsustainable. On the Atlantic, CSCL has announced it is abandoning the Trans-Atlantic trade effective September. The following rate increases have been announced: General Rate Increases (GRI) from Europe: $400/20 and $500/40 to become effective September 1, 2009. Suggested Rate Increases (GRI) from Asia: $400/20 $500/40 $560/40HV and $635/45 to become effective August 10, 2009. Carriers are always announcing rate increases and are always trying to justify them as a necessity in order to maintain continued service and viability for their industry. In markets where the demand for cargo space is lower than the supply, it has proven almost always a futile effort and wishful thinking as carriers continued to compete for the freight that is still available. However the downturn in freight rates has been unprecedented and may simply force carriers to stick to their guns this time. In reality we will most likely not know before the announced effective dates, as increases are always a cat and mouse game played out until the very last minute. And even if the carriers are pushing the increases through in part or in full, they may fall apart again shortly thereafter. However there has been so much talk now about these increases, especially from Europe, that we felt to at least alert you to this issue. Obviously we shall stay close to this issue and will inform you as soon as we have some sort of definitive news to share with you. In the meantime we would like to thank you as always for your continued support and remain open to any questions that you may have. Best regards, Andreas Bauermeister,
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Seajet Express Inc., 46 Arlington Street, Chelsea, MA 02150 - Telephone 617.884.0991 - www.seajet.com |
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