Seafreight rates into Africa have fallen by over half in the past 20 years, according to Alphaliner.
The shipping industry analyst pointed out that although shippers had been quick to object to carriers’ recent attempts to impose ‘emergency’ bunker surcharges in response to steadily increasing fuel prices, they had yet to acknowledge the significant savings on freight rates they had seen over the past two decades.
Fuel costs, which had accounted for about 8% of carriers’ operating costs in 1998, now made up 15% of total operating costs, Alphaliner said.
“For context, this number reached a high of about 26% in 2011, when bunker cost were unusually high for an extended period,” a spokesperson pointed out. “Since then, carriers have been able to mitigate part of the increases through costsaving initiatives."
