Input Prices

Table of Contents

• Introduction
• Input Prices Collection Method
• Input Prices Data

Several costs of inputs include:

• Raw fish costs
• Labor costs
• Fuel
• Packaging
• Shipping
• Additives
• Maintenance and Repair
• P&I Insurance
• Food and Consumable Supplies

To give an indication of the importance of these costs, the items in total account for greater than 70% of all variable costs. Below is a brief description of each variable cost. When percentages are provided, they represent a rough average of costs across all operations.

Labor costs
Labor costs are one of the largest costs faced by at-sea processors and are equal to approximately 22% of gross sales. Most at-sea processors calculate labor costs using crew shares.

Fuel
EFIN tracks monthly spot fuel prices on the West Coast and Alaska. These costs represent approximately 10 to 15% of the variable cost. EFIN has tracked fuel prices on the West Coast and Alaska since 1999.

Packaging
Packaging costs represent a relatively small amount of the total variable costs accounting for less than 5%. Different packaging materials are needed depending on what product is being shipped. For example, fillets are typically packaged in a "master box" with "three fish block liners" and "one poly liner" per block liner.

The average master box is of 175 lb test measuring 19.5 x 10.25 x 7.5 inches with an "E" flute. The flute is the corrugated middle or "waffle" air space between the inner and outer liner of cardboard; the higher the letter the thicker the flute. An "E" flute is about 15% higher than a "B" flute. Fish block liners are a wax solid liner carton. Three of these liners go inside one master box. The last piece of packaging material is the "poly liner". The average mill for the poly liner is 1.5 and measures 22 x 12 x 23 inches.

Pricing is obtained from two packaging companies:

• Rena Packaging
• Alliance Packaging

Additives
Surimi additives account for about 5% of the variable costs. Pollock surimi processors use sorbital, sugar and phosphates in varying quantities as additives. In addition, whey protein and/or egg are sometimes added to increase gel strength of the final product. For those processors that also produce hake surimi off the West Coast, beef blood plasma is an additional ingredient that enhances gel strength.

Maintenance and Repair
Maintenance and repair expenses to fishing vessels are very important, however, are the most difficult to index. In a particularly bad year, maintenance and repair could account for 20% of the variable cost. Information on the number of days at sea and the age of a vessel is important in estimating these costs. The most difficult part of creating an index based on these types of costs is that while changes in these costs can be tracked, these numbers by themselves are probably not useful.

Protection and Indemnity Insurance (P&I)
P&I insurance accounts for approximately 5% of variable costs. Unlike hull insurance, which most operators treat as a fixed cost, P&I insurance is variable. Its price is primarily dependent on three factors: expected number of days at sea, number of crew, and the loss history of the vessel or company.

Food and Consumable Supplies
Food and consumables make up about 2% of an at-sea operation's total variable cost. This category includes food as well as galley supplies, cleaning products, linens, miscellaneous hardware, etc.

Raw fish costs
Currently EFIN does not have the total variable cost information to calculate the percentage attributable to fish costs.

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• Packaging prices are collected through phone interviews and The Yellow Sheet publication. The Yellow Sheet tracks the cost of 42# Fourd, Kraft Linerboard on a weekly basis. Reference: Official Board Markets: The Yellow Sheet. An Advanstar Publication. 2002-2003.
• Shipping prices are available on the web via three web sites:
  • Horizon Lines, a domestic shipping company www.horizon-lines.com
  • APL is an international shipping company www.apl.com
  • Bulington Northern Railroad is a domestic shipping company www.bnsf.com

Instructions for obtaining shipping prices from Horizon Lines:

1. Select "Find a Rate".
2. Select "Find Rate" and then select "Rate Search".
3. Select "All Tariffs" and "Commodity List".
4. Type in the commodity, select "Inland Point" and type in the origin and destination and click on "next".
5. From the list provided select your commodity. In this case the commodity is "Fish Frozen, VIZ: Surimi Frozen (see notes 1 and 2)" and click next.
6. From the list provided select the destination. In this case the destination is: "Tacoma, WA" and click next. The next screen notes that the minimum weight is 42,000 lbs, click next again.
7. The following screen that is displayed summarizes the commodity, origin and destination in a form, click next if you agree with the summary.
8. This last screen provides the rate it costs the end user to ship one 42,000 lb container of frozen surimi from Dutch Harbor, AK to Tacoma, WA.

Instructions for obtaining shipping prices from APL:
1. In the "Shortcuts" drop down menu in the top right portion of the screen, select "Tariffs".
2. Under the "Rate Tariffs and Quotation" section, select "Rate Tariff Search".
3. In the form provided type in origin, destination, commodity keyword and select "Get Rate". In this case the destination is "Korea Group 2 Points - GR2KOR".
4. In the next form, select surimi (imitation crab), frozen.
5. The last screen provides the rate it costs to ship a container of frozen surimi from Dutch Harbor, AK to Korea.

Instructions for obtaining shipping prices from Burlington Northern Railroad:
1. Select "Prices" and then "Price Lookup".
2. Select "frozen fish" under the heading "Commodity".
3. Select origin and destination. In this case the origin is Seattle, WA and the destination is Chicago, IL. Select "4. Prices".
4. This last screen provides the price to ship one container of packaged frozen fish from Seattle, WA to Chicago, IL.

Note: The price is reported as the cost per container (50ft and 72 ft railroad car).

Origin	Destination	Commodity
Seattle, WA	Chicago, IL	frozen fish
Seattle, WA	New York, NY	frozen fish
Seattle, WA	Gloucester, NJ	frozen fish
Portland, OR	Chicago, IL	frozen fish
Portland, OR	New York, NY	frozen fish

Figure 1. Shipping Routes


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Input Prices Data

EFIN last updated on: May 4, 2005.

Packaging:

DOE	MASTER BOX PRICE (MB)	MB SPECS	BLOCK LINER PRICE	POLY LINERS (PL)	PL SPECS
1/6/2003	$365/1,000 boxes	175 lb test, E Flute, 19.5x10.25x7.5	$220/100 liners	$62/1,000 liners	22x12x23
1/6/2003	$.35/box	175 lb test, E Flute, 19.5x10.25x7.5	$.35-$.36/box	$.05/liner	22x12x23
5/23/2003	$.35/box	175 lb test, E Flute, 19.5x10.25x7.5	$229/1,000 liners	$.06/liner	22x12x23
5/23/2003	$.35/box	175 lb test, E Flute, 19.5x10.25x7.5	$.55/boxes	$.054/liner	22x12x23
9/1/2003	$.35/box	175 lb test, E Flute, 19.5x10.25x7.5	$230/1,000 liners	$.063/liner	22x12x23
1/26/2004	sold none	175 lb test, E Flute, 19.5x10.25x7.5	$228/1,000 liners	$.07/liner	22x12x23
5/4/2004	$290/1,000 liners	175 lb test, E Flute, 19.5x10.25x7.5	$240-$245/1,000 liners	$80-82/1000 l,iners	22x12x23




The Yellow Sheet:

42# Fourd Kraft Linerboard for the West:

DATE	PRICE
August 31, 2002 to December 7, 2002	$425 - $435 /short ton
December 14, 2002 to January 4, 2003	$415 - $425 /short ton
January 11, 2003 to March 15, 2003	$415 - $425 /short ton
March 22, 2003 to May 10, 2003	$385 - $395 /short ton
March 29, 2003 to August 30, 2003	$370 - $380 /short ton
September 6, 2003 to March 27, 2004	$370 - $380 /short ton
April 3, 2004 to June 19, 2004	$410 - $420 /short ton
June 26, 2004 to January 4,2005	$460 - $470 /short ton
January 5, 2005 to May 4,2005	$470 - $460 /short ton




Shipping:

Origin City	Destination City	View Data Online 2003-Present	Download Data
Dutch Harbor, AK via Dutch Harbor, AK	Tacoma, WA	View Data	Excel	Text File
Dutch Harbor, AK	Korea	View Data	Excel	Text File
Seattle, WA	Chicago, IL	View Data	Excel	Text File
Seattle, WA	New York, NY	View Data	Excel	Text File
Seattle, WA	Gloucester, NJ	View Data	Excel	Text File
Portland, OR	Chicago, IL	View Data	Excel	Text File
Portland, OR	New York, NY	View Data	Excel	Text File
Data for All Cities		View Data	Excel	Text File




Shipping Variable Prices

Shipping price data are available in two formats: as a Microsoft Excel file and as an ASCII fixed width file. Each file contains the following variables:

Variable	Type	Width	Variable Title	Data Values/Notes
Year	Numeric	4	Year of Entry	2003 to present
Month	Numeric	2	Month of Entry	January, May, September
Day	Numeric	2	Day of Entry	First of the month
Origin	String	37	City where shipment originated	Seattle, Dutch Harbor or Portland
Destinat	String	14	City of shipping destination	Gloucester, New York, Korea, Tacoma, Chicago
Commodit	String	20	Commodity being shipped	Packaged frozen fish, frozen surimi
Price	Dollar	11.2	Price of shipment	U.S. Dollars
Note	String	42	Notes pertaining to shipment	Per size of container

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