Fuel Costs

Every once in awhile the topic of fuel costs comes to the forefront. People begin trying to find new ways to fuel their vehicles both to save costs and save the environment from pollutants. In the shipping industry this can be a difficult task since every way to ship cargo requires fuel. And shipping cargo internationally requires a lot of fuel whether air freight or ocean freight. With fuel costs staying high and no other means of fuel gaining any ground, people are wondering how we are supposed to get around the increased fuel costs.

In domestic shipping, people have started to use natural gas as an alternative in their trucks. It is an increasingly popular choice for people in other countries but has not yet gained ground in the United States. While this area may be able to grow, it still leaves ocean freight rates with higher costs since the fuel costs are a huge part of factoring freight rates. Meantime these increases are becoming harder for companies to absorb as the recession lingers.

According to reports over the last year, we should only expect further rising fuel costs in the shipping industry. This type of news has made steamship lines reevaluate their processes. Many ships have been told to decreased speeds on the water and other similar strategies to conserve fuel. Ultimately these types of changes affect transit times and speed to market with a domino affect.

Alternative methods of fuel are coming to the forefront now and more companies will be looking to find new ways to get around problem and keep freight rates down. Hopefully it will not be long before we can switch over to more efficient and less costly fuels.