Capesize (Atlantic and Pacific)
There was limited trading for the Capesize sector throughout the entire week for all the routes apart from the front haul. Activity was small in the Pacific where big players did not move. On the other side of the world, Vale fixed various vessels for Tubarao / Qingdao. The previous week's rates were in the 37/38 US dollars level and reached 30 dollars on Friday 10th July; the most repeated number was 34 dollars in the middle of the week.
The Brazilian giant fixed a few contracts of affreightment from their Brazilian ports to China in the region of 25 dollars for 2 years duration starting in January 2010. On 3rd July BCI closed at 6,438 and on 10th July ended at 4,844 (-24.76%).
Panamax (Atlantic and Pacific)
The Atlantic market generally ended on a positive note with very good activity in fixing of tonnage during the week. A very good number of July tonnages have now been absorbed, and even those charterers with cargoes from South America were finding it difficult to find tonnage from the Middle East much before mid July for their cargoes. In the Pacific, activity was still slow and rates failed to show much promise. However, with a significant amount of tonnage either in ballast to or drawn into the Atlantic, there may be some hope of seeing rates steady or even improve next week. There was further period activity with Bunge also taking the Eleftheria, 76,099-dwt 2001-built from Zhangzhou 13-15 July for 12 to 14 months trading at $18,000 daily.
Handy (Far East/Pacific)
Tonnage still available for employment kept piling up with the volume of chartering enquiries remaining insufficient to prevent rates from falling down a little further. A larger amount of concluded fixing initially did not bring any benefit to the rates until the week got closer to its end, when slightly better figures were reported having been agreed both for local trips and Pacific round voyages, while Indian Ocean bound business remained closer to last dones levels. Backhaul business kept paying low rates but less tonnage was seen ballasting into the US Gulf. Revived period interest for Supramaxes showed that today, this sized tonnage delivering in the area can achieve around USD 16/17,000 daily on a 12 month employment.
Handy (North Europe/Mediterranean)
Activity from Mediterranean waters stayed quiet and some tonnage started piling up in the area. But the on-going strong chartering demand from the Continent, where very few vessels were available, rapidly washed away several Mediterranean open positions at good rates. Period interest became alive again from this area with a Supramax rumored fixed somewhere in the low 20,000's USD daily for short period. The very firm fixture reported for the large Supramax ex central Mediterranean to perform a Black Sea/Far East run is dated back to the middle of the previous week. At present a few chartering enquiries are being pushed for loading out of this area and not much serious enough trading is going on as yet.
Handy (USA/N.Atlantic/Lakes/S.America)
Atlantic Americas still showed an enjoyable market for owners with rates starting at the same levels as the previous week. Although some tonnage piled up in the US Gulf, they were rapidly swallowed by the increased demand with a consequent rate increase. A lot of business enquiries went on from South America, most of them for East bound destinations, where rates kept increasing as owners were otherwise reluctant to send their tonnage into this more depressed market area. This market was firm enough to pay attractive rates even for tonnage ballasting out of Indian Ocean/Arabic countries.
Handy (Indian Ocean/South Africa)
The latest reported fixtures on the India/China iron ore trade showed some decrease in rates considering the depressed market area where tonnage would be ending up by even weaker figures, also considering that similar rates can be achieved by owners delivering in this area for a much longer trip via South America into the Far East. Outside of the iron ore trade, activity in the area showed to be otherwise quiet.
Banchero Costa and Co Spa
Mail: research@bancosta.it
Web: www.bancosta.it