Market and Business Update

Relatively Stable Commodity Prices Driven up by Increasing Freight Rates

In January 2024, the Red Sea crisis drove up the world container price index and prolonged the Far-East Westbound transit times due to the vessel re-routing via the Cape of Good Hope. Though the world food price index was on a downward trend into 2024, increasing freight rates are now driving it up. Prices for wheat, maize and rice are still on the rise, impacted by tensions in the Black Sea, uncertainties about Brazil’s second maize crop plantings and tight rice availabilities from Vietnam...