Experts are eyeing "revival" of shipping freights rates as the ship bunker prices have shot up to $120 per ton, registering a 100 percent increase in last one year in wake of the record increase in oil prices in international market.
"Apart from talks of increase or decrease, the international shipping freight rates are reviving from years-long decline due to an upward trend in the ship bunker prices, driven up by the fast increase in oil prices in international market," a shipping expert told Business Recorder on Tuesday.
He recalled that shipping freight rate for a twenty-foot container from Karachi to Far Eastern countries like Hong Kong, South Korea, Japan etc was ranging between $800 to $900 just a couple of years ago, which he said, had declined to $135 to $140 during the said period.
The expert, however, said an upward trend in oil prices in international market has currently pushed the freight rates up, which are determined by various driving factors like ship bunker rates, crew wages, maintenance charges etc, to the level of $220-240 per 20-feet container.
He said the freight rates were likely to shoot up, as an upsurge in oil prices internationally would directly affect the prices of ship bunker, which would ultimately lead to an increase in shipping freights' rates.
Bunker rates are the largest factor (75 percent in terms of effect) for determination of freight rates and bunker rates depend on the international oil prices, he said. He said bunker prices have remarkably skyrocketed in wake of record increase in oil prices particularly after December 2007.