International Grains Council Freight Rates

International Grains Council
2022-04-18T18:11:42.251011+00:00
freight, supply

As part of efforts to further promote transparency in international markets, the IGC Secretariat compiles weekly data on nominal ocean freight rates for a wide range of grains and oilseeds carrying routes (mainly focusing on heavy grains (wheat, durum), sorghum and soyabeans). The coverage has expanded significantly over the years,to a large extent reflecting the organisation’s improving expertise in the dry bulk freight market as well as its expanded commodity coverage. In May 2007, the Secretariat introduced a weekly IGC Grain Freight Index (GFI), presenting an overall measure of movements in freight prices across key selected grains and oilseeds routes. In order to provide a better reflection of freight costs in grains and oilseeds trade, the Secretariat proposes the introduction of a revamped weekly index, namely the IGC Grains and Oilseeds Freight Index (GOFI). The new index builds significantly on the prior measure, and covers 68 routes from key exporting origins, including Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Black Sea, Canada, the EU, and the USA (compared to 15 routes covered previously). Most of these routes are presented in the monthly IGC Grain Market Report. Additionally, instead of employing a simple average as previously, the GOFI is constructed using a weighted average approach, with each route assigned a weighting based on its previous year’s share in total flow of all commodities considered.