15-20 March Weekly market report.. Banchero Costa

Tuesday, 24 March 2009 12:09:44 (GMT+3)   |  
       

Capesize (Atlantic and Pacific)

Capesize market was still very weak last week with some little improvements only seen in the Pacific area with some more fixtures on the Western Australian iron ore to China route. However the impact on the market was small with rates still below $ 7's. Atlantic was still extremely quiet with very few new enquiries, the best seen was done by Korea Line fixing the C. Winner for a fronthaul at Usd 36,500 daily. The Baltic Capesize T/C lost $ 3,537 closing just below $20,000.

Panamax (Atlantic and Pacific)

It was not a good week again. Rates fell sharply, but by the end of week rumours indicated that spot/prompt tonnage was limited, which gave owners hope for next week. Trans-Atlantic rounds were under pressure and likely to drop to the lowteens since there was lack of new business. There were still quite good activity for fronthaul business, with rates under $20,000 daily. In the Pacific, market was not good at all: very few fresh inquiries and many ships fixed but failed with rates dropped sharply as competition for business accelerated. NoPac rounds are now being done at about $9,000 daily. For backhaul business, rates will be seen in the $6,000-$6,300 daily range. Demand for period tonnage in either basin remains very few.

Handy (Far East/Pacific)

A negative trend for owners prevailed in this area, with the week opening with very limited fresh demand for fresh chartering and reported fixtures already a few days before. Trans-Pacific rate for large Modern Supramaxes were back to the 8,000 usd daily level and interest for period almost disappeared both for short and long term commitments. The business week carried on with this lousy atmosphere and rates struggling to keep at last dones levels but not always managing. Smaller Handies showed some better resistance on rates although were involved in the downwards trend as well.

Handy (North Europe/Mediterranean)

Rates for scrap business loading out of northern Europe showed a relevant decrease for business bound to Atlantic destinations, while same commodity paid lower but still good enough for owners to destination Far East. Activity from the Mediterranean stayed quiet except for the Black Sea where rates were still kept quite alive by the good volume of demand, mostly for grains and steels to the Middle East. Some owners' uncertainty was showed at the end of the week, making us guess that perhaps also from this area the volume of demand may be fading away, although a few more working days will be necessary to judge the actual trend developments.

Handy (USA/N.Atlantic/Lakes/S.America)

Also from this area the week started very slowly with owners facing huge difficulties to keep the freight at similar levels with last dones. Even if the aps delivery rates were still good enough they couldn't compare with the previous weeks levels. The number of ballasters enlarged due to the slow down of Indian iron ore export activity, seriously further inflating the rates. A lot of fixing and failing was seen. And even some fresh enquires seen in the second part of the week could not avoid the slowing of business and decreasing a bit in rates when the week ended.

Handy (Indian Ocean/South Africa)

Even if a good number of fixtures were reported concluded from India to China on the usual iron ore run, it was not enough to digest the much larger volume of tonnage available in the area. In the previous weeks there has been a massive amount of Supramax tonnage position from Pacific to this area, as a consequence of the pacific market crisis in connection with better rates agreed by charterers on this trade. It also lead to a huge pile up of ships in the area, an almost daily decrease on the time-carter rates, and a number of boats ballasting outside and inflating other markets.

Banchero Costa and Co Spa

Mail: research@bancosta.it
Web: www.bancosta.it


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