Coal freight

[bangor-toad]

When transporting huge amounts of goods by ship, the cost of the transport as a percent of the value of the goods is tiny so the bigger the ship the lower the cost of shipping per unit of goods.

You're not wrong there.
I was looking into the costs of long distance shipping costs a few years back. The statistic that always stuck in mind was that the cost of transporting a small fridge from China to the UK port on a container ship could be as little as USD $1.

Ok, that was assuming you were moving a *lot* of fridges in one go but it gives an indication of how cheaply you can move things. Some of the modern coal / ore carriers are massive and the cost per tonne must be pretty small for the sea leg.
In fact, I would go as far as speculating that the charges to move a trainload of coal across the UK are higher than the cost of moving it from Russia / Aus / wherever to the UK port...

Jason

 

[Liam]

It's often said that it is less expensive to ship a container from China to Felixstowe or Southampton than it is to move it by road it from these ports to its final destination in the UK.

 

[ChiefPlanner]

Which, with cheap labour and unregulated / non caring industrial employeers explains why so much if the cheaper goods in shops are imports !!!!