Oil price spike forces Australian startup to pay $28,000 for imported component
Kapture CEO spent $28,000 to airfreight a component worth about a third of that cost due to soaring jet fuel prices.
Kapture needed to import a component from China for an urgent carbon-capture trial. The company had no choice but to airfreight it instead of using ocean shipping.
The component itself was worth roughly a third of what Kapture paid to ship it. Jet fuel prices are now more than double their levels from a year ago.
Building the part locally through an Australian manufacturer would have cost $60,000 and taken months. Brent crude is trading above $100 per barrel, driven by conflict that has disrupted supplies through key shipping straits.
Once the component landed in Melbourne, Kapture spent thousands more on fuel surcharges to deliver it to Sydney. Bagri warned that other startups reliant on imported chemicals and materials will face mounting pressure.
- $28,000
- Airfreight cost
- $9,000
- Component value
- $60,000
- Local manufacturing cost
- above $100 per barrel
- Brent crude price
Why it mattersRising import costs linked to global conflict directly hit Australian business margins and product timelines, forcing painful trade-offs between price and speed.
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