Water

By Staff -- Logistics Management, 11/1/1999

Bowing to the inevitable, we have revised the forecast for water transportation rates upward significantly. After hikes of between 3.1% in 1995 and 0.5% in 1997, the annual inflation rate for water transportation is estimated to be 6.1% in 1999 and is forecast to rise again by 4.0% in 2000. Most of these hikes can be attributed to the huge rate jumps for inbound deep-sea foreign transportation of freight that began 1999 after the Asian economy collapsed. The newly revised forecast calls for little or no give-back in these rate hikes next year.

% CHANGE VS.:1 month ago6 mos. ago1 yr. ago

Inbound liner +10.0 +69.5 +54.4

Outbound liner -2.4 -2.3 -10.3

Domestic deep sea 0.0 +1.4 +1.6

Grt. Lks.-St. Lawrence 0.0 -0.3 -0.1

Mississippi River +1.8 +16.1 +4.1