Australian wheat exports boost Asian liner trade

Australian wheat producers are shipping an increasing amount of grain in containers rather than in bulk, the Australian Bureau of Agricultural and Resource Economics said yesterday, a trend that reflects tighter credit and smaller inventories at the customer end. Wheat shipped in containers and bags rose by almost 5% to 2.5m tonnes in the marketing year to end September, with key customers being flour millers in Vietnam, Taiwan and India, Reuters reports the government body as saying. Bulk wheat shipments in the latest marketing year slipped by 59,000 tonnes to 12.2 million tonnes, almost entirely offset by the 55,000-tonnes gain in container exports. Indonesia, followed by Japan and South Korea, were key customers for bulk wheat in 2009-10, according to the bureau.