There is a world wide container shortage.
This has led to shipping companies jacking their rates on vessel shipment rates from Europe to USA ports.
My company ships lumber in 40’ containers from northern Europe to US ports.
The shipping companies have said to us if you want a container on this vessel sailing in May/June it is going to cost you anywhere from $2000-7000 more than when we took the order for the lumber in October of last year. I am speaking of personal experience on trades I am involved in. We(as brokers)have had to go to our customers in the US and state that we can not absorb these added freight cost. Therefore, IF you want this lumber, we have to add an additional freight surcharge of “X” to the invoice.
This is unprecedented in the lumber business. The lumber business is unlike any other wholesale business in that “our word is our bond”. We do not record our calls. We send an order confirmation. Many independent owners do not even use purchase order numbers. They just say: “put my name on it”.
Keep in mind this is for material costing in excess of $150K on a rail car or $50K on a truckload.
Keep in mind this is for material costing in excess of $150K on a rail car or $50K on a truckload.>>> Thx this explain a bit of the increase in lumber cost. a chessy train runs behind my house and i do see a lot of lumber and building products on it. so i was wondering why the high cost of lumber if the stuff seems to still be moving around.
Everything I’ve seen is that the lumber business is insane right now, that looks to be just another aspect of that.
I wonder if the logistics situation is partially because of Covid disruptions that started over a year ago at this point still working themselves through the system?