Capesize (Atlantic and Pacific)
Capesize Market is further weakening with rates even below Handysize rates: average of the 4 T/c routes reached Usd 8,859/day last Friday. Rates in the Far East have flattened to about Usd 6.70/6.75 which is equivalent to about Usd 6,000 daily, while in the Atlantic rates had a further decline with rumors of Capesizes being fixed even at below mid Usd 8,000 evel and Tubarao/Rotterdam iron ore is slowly going towards the level of Usd 8.00. Period activity was also very limited: few business done at about Usd 17/18,000 daily for a short period of about 4/6 or 5/7 months for newbuildings with delivery in the Far East within January.
Panamax (Atlantic and Pacific)
The Atlantic market started to collapse in the second half of the week mainly due to the overwhelming ballasters from the Pacific. Trans-Atlantic biz was said to be talked at low 10,000 usd per day and biz to the East was at about low 20k plus bb to end the week. Small number of new orders was far from covering so many tonnages. The Pacific market didn't see rates turn positive despite some new inquiries poped out. Aussie round voyage was still holding at 8,000 level while Nopac soft at mid 9,000.The coming Asian lunar new year holiday may be one of the reasons that kept the Pacific quiet. Rates talked for short period also went down with the influence of trip biz, to around 15,000 usd per day in the end.
Handy (Far East/Pacific)
The Supramax and Handymax market remained under a heavy pressure. A large number of vessels were reported fixed on a variety of local trips. In the bunch of the generally low rates some fixtures were agreed at better levels which is not clear yet if it was due to the growing rush to fix before the long Chinese holidays starting in February, or to an actual start of a beter market for the owners. In this scenario the smaller Handies kept playing on the side of the dragon, by fixing time-charter rates which are almost realistic for the owners and in most of the cases higher than what the larger tonnage is getting on the same trades.
Handy (North Europe/Mediterranean)
A small chartering interest for business loading out of the Mediterranean and the Black Sea waters brought further decrease to the rates. It allowed more fertilizers to get sold from North Africa to Brazilian Receivers, supported by the voyage freight saving on the sea passage. Same still allowed owners to easily cover their ballast expenses to South America and achieve larger economical benefits from the next loaded leg there. Chartering from northern Europe was again more active with best rates achieved on the scrap-to-east Med trade. Volume of this trade was not large enough to feed all the tonnage available,allowing charterers of east-bound business to fix at cheap money.
Handy (USA/N.Atlantic/Lakes/S.America)
A lot of steam kept coming out in the U.S. north Atlantic market where Supra's showed to keep time-charter rates in the mid $30,000 daily mark, both for Trans-Atlantic and east bound business. The trend allowed owners to book this type of tonnage for short period at fancy enough rates, but still better for charterers compared to the single trip ones. A slow-down was seen at the end of the week perhaps because of a tonnage build up estimation for the beginning of next month. Tonnage was reported fixing far below rates for loading at South American ports where the volume of available business is considerably weaker compared to the U.S. gulf.
Handy (Indian Ocean/South Africa)
The larger number of tonnage reported fixed to load iron ore from India to China should mean that the cargo content moisture problems are getting progressively solved. The bigger activity quickly brought a 10/15pct increase to the daily time-charter rates which reflected straight in the business originating out of the South African ports. Activity for smaller Handies stayed very small in this area.
Banchero Costa and Co Spa
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