30 August - 4 September Weekly market report.. Banchero Costa

Tuesday, 08 September 2009 11:23:44 (GMT+3)   |  
       

Capesize (Atlantic and Pacific)

The previous week's trend continued this week, index dropped about 7.50% from 3,946 to 3,651, 4 tc routes average from 37,865 reached 34,647 (-usd 3,218). Notwithstanding good activity in the Pacific, with the 2 giants BHP and Rio Tinto fixing quite good numbers of vessels, voyage rate for Australian round voyage dropped to usd 10.50 per metric ton. Fronthaul was almost steady with Vale, not very active, fixing in excess of 28 doll pmt and operators paying a bit higher. A few fixtures were reported for trans-Atlantic. Period market was very quiet.

Panamax (Atlantic and Pacific)

A good week for both basins: rates in the Pacific improved over the week especially for short period business; and this was largely due to a stronger Atlantic market. Charterers were forced to take vessels on short period to cover their backhaul cargoes as owners/operators were not prepared to take discounted rates for a trip back but would rather ballast into USG or ECSAM. This left those preferring to stay in the Atlantic increasing their rate ideas. In Atlantic many early ships have been covered and it seems not too much left for near future cargoes, which kept rates at firm levels despite the lack of South America business. Short period activity was evident also here.

Handy (Far East/Pacific)

Market kept a very slow trend for the larger sizes with a huge number of available units and very poor fresh enquiry. Lower rates were agreed on all trades and a sudden lack of demand for tonnage to load from South East Asia back to Far East brought further negativity. Owners started seriously looking at business loading from USG of which the reported fixtures showed that better rate was available compared to local rounds. The smaller handies showed a much better resistance to the depression, easily fetching similar rates to the level of last dones and getting paid better than handymaxes on the Australian round voyage.

Handy (North Europe/Mediterranean)

The Black Sea remained a firm area with the majority of requirements to load grains into the Red Sea and Middle East plus some steels and fertilizers new stems. The on-going piracy risk affecting the Gulf of Aden assisted rates to these directions to remain solid and to attract tonnage open in the Indian Ocean to consider business loading from the Black Sea. No fixtures reported were available for business loading from the Continent, although this market stayed very firm with lots of fresh enquiry and still not many vessels around. Charterers' attempts to assist fixing by bidding the available tonnage are not always proving successful results, as the quality of this market allows the owners to be very selective about which business to go for.

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

Rates remained firm on all sizes for business loading out of USG and U.S. North Atlantic with less affection suffered by the tonnage ballasting from Europe where it could manage to find its employment without the need of the Atlantic crossing. Even the vessels ballasting from the Far East into the USG didn't bring any instability so far. South America showed a positive trend as well but there were more worries about an on-going stability due to lack of business in the Indian Ocean. The larger handies were ballsting this way in search of a better luck.

Handy (Indian Ocean/South Africa)

The interest for carrying iron ore from India to China seemed to be dried up with the Chinese end users shutting down their doors to the import. The very few fixtures still concluded were showing very low rate agreed. The whole area is consequently facing a negative trend with small rates agreed from South Africa as well, and allowing operators take in tonnage for short period at very low rate.

Banchero Costa and Co Spa

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


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