Australian Wheat Logistics Worsening

Media reports this morning suggest that Indonesian wheat buyers are being told that they face shipping delays of 60-105 days for wheat coming from Australia.

This seems to be causing buyers to hastily try to arrange purchases and shipments from other willing sellers.

One of the main problems seems to be the deregulation of the Australian grain trade.

This year twenty two different companies are licensed to export Australian wheat, previously everything was handled by the Australian Wheat Board.

All twenty two of those companies are scrambling for fixtures at Western Australia's main ports of Geraldton, Kwinana, Albany and Esperance.

The latest shipping roster from grower-owned business Cooperative Bulk Handling, who operate a monopoly over all grain exports in the state, shows sixty five vessels listed as loading, waiting to load or due at port in the next two months.

See the roster here