Insights and Stories on Shipping

Thunder Bay shipping season wraps up

Jan. 14, 2022 at 8:27 pm CST

MarketsFarm — The last vessel of the shipping season will depart the Port of Thunder Bay on Friday. Grain handling volumes were down on the year, but increases in other categories helped limit the overall reduction in movement through the northern Lake Superior port. The 2021 navigation season will come […]

Baltic Dry Index drops to three-month lows

Nov. 3, 2021 at 9:10 am CDT

By Phil Franz-Warkentin

wheat being loaded onto a bulk vessel at port in Russia.

‘Containergeddon’ drives sugar, rice shippers back to bulk vessels

Oct. 22, 2021 at 8:04 pm CDT

By Marcelo Teixeira

‘Containergeddon’: Supply crisis drives Walmart, rivals to hire own ships

Oct. 7, 2021 at 4:53 pm CDT

By Jonathan Saul Lisa Baertlein siddharth-cavale

CFA’s Hay West program up and running

Sep. 20, 2021 at 5:25 pm CDT

By Dave Bedard

Argentina agrees short-term contract with river dredger

Sep. 10, 2021 at 8:10 pm CDT

Buenos Aires | Reuters — Argentina’s government has agreed a short-term deal with Belgian firm Jan de Nul to dredge the Parana River, a government source said Friday, a move that should ease industry concerns in the near-term over navigability of the critical grains waterway. Exporters had grown worried about […]

By Maximilian Heath

U.S. grains: Corn, soybeans sag on export worries after Ida

Sep. 1, 2021 at 6:40 pm CDT

Chicago | Reuters — U.S. corn futures fell about two per cent on Wednesday, with the benchmark December contract hitting a seven-week low as worries about shipping delays from the U.S. Gulf Coast triggered a round of long liquidation, analysts said. Soybean futures touched a two-month low and wheat followed […]

By Julie Ingwersen

Argentina forms agency to manage cargo river, grain exporters worry

Aug. 25, 2021 at 5:45 pm CDT

Buenos Aires | Reuters — Argentina said on Wednesday it had formed a new government agency to manage dredging operations needed to ensure navigation of the Parana River, which carries about 80 per cent of the country’s grains exports from the Pampas farm belt out to sea. For decades, cargo […]

By Hugh Bronstein Maximilian Heath

Maersk signs first green methanol deal toward dropping fossil fuels

Aug. 18, 2021 at 4:51 pm CDT

Copenhagen | Reuters — A.P. Moller-Maersk said on Wednesday it had signed a contract securing green methanol as the world’s largest shipping firm gears up to operate its first carbon-neutral ship in 2023. With about 90 per cent of world trade transported by sea, global shipping accounts for nearly three […]

By Reuters

Ocean freight rates at decade highs

May. 7, 2021 at 4:07 am CDT

MarketsFarm — Ocean freight rates have climbed steadily higher over the past year, recovering from the lows hit at the start of the pandemic in early 2020 to see their highest levels in over a decade. The Baltic Dry Index (BDI), a major indicator of shipping rates, hit a high […]