USDA RELEASES SECOND SEMI-ANNUAL OCEAN CONTAINER MARKET REPORT

USDA RELEASES SECOND SEMI-ANNUAL OCEAN CONTAINER MARKET REPORT    The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Agricultural Marketing Service has released its second, semi-annual ocean container market report to the industry.
   The report, Agricultural Ocean Transportation Trends, is available online at https://www.ams.usda.gov/tmd/agott. The agency said the report provides “information on a variety of current trends that may affect the ocean container industry.”
   The report reviews increasing surcharges and clauses that are finding their way into many shippers’ service contracts with carriers. It also discusses ocean freight rate trends, including graphs. The agency’s report said it expects freight rates to begin to decline as carriers take delivery of additional capacity and as the U.S. economy weakens.
   “This information and other factors that affect or are expected to affect the market are collected from interviews with agricultural shippers that control more than 150,000 40-foot equivalent units per year,” the Agricultural Marketing Service said.