A handful of Panamax ships, including two Iraq-bound vessels, are facing a lengthy delay in loading wheat at Vancouver and Prince Rupert ports due to logistics problems, a source close to the Canadian Wheat Board said on Thursday.
The Pacific Northwest has been hammered by wind storms over the past few weeks which caused rail washouts and slowed cargo delivery from the Prairies, he said. Lengthy delays for cargo loading would result in heavy demurrage costs.
"There are logistics issues right now, and exporters are playing catch-up," the source said. "There is a significant delay for cargoes to get to the ships."
However, the source declined to estimate the extent of the shipment delay.
A shipping source said that Panamax-size ships had been waiting for about seven days to load their wheat cargoes at Vancouver and Prince Rupert.
The vessels Dimitrios and Grazia Bottigleri were scheduled to deliver wheat to Iraq from Canada. "These ships have been waiting for their cargoes for seven days, and we still don't know when the cargoes are coming," the shipping source said.
Freight rates for Iraqi delivery were pegged at above $40,000 a day due to the high war-risk premiums, compared with $33,000-$34,500 a day for Asian destinations. In mid-January, the 73,700-dwt, 1993-built Pacific Paradise delivered wheat to Iraq, following four ships that sailed to the same destination.
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