Capesize (Atlantic and Pacific)
With China on holiday all of last week, the Capesize market has been rather slow and a bit disappointing for most of the owners that were expecting higher rates. Atlantic remained steady and has been almost balanced with very little fixtures reported. In the Far East, even if there were some signs of improvement at the end of the week, the market remained generally very weak. In general the Baltic Cape Index improved of 258 points and the 4 T/c routes Usd 3,269 daily. All Owners now hope that the New Chinese Year will bring soon a general improvement in all the rates worldwide.
Panamax (Atlantic and Pacific)
A very mixed week for the Atlantic market; sources reported a stronger market in the North Atlantic on the back of limited tonnage availability, instead rates in East Coast South America struggled as charterers looked to the East for cheaper alternatives. As a result, despite some optimism about the volume of new business, rates have failed to improve. The Pacific business remained quiet due to New Year celebrations. Rates were low and there was little concluded business reported. Good demand for period tonnage in both basins with rates remaining quite strong.
Handy (Far East/Pacific)
Chinese New Year holidays have made a big influence on the activity in Far East - Pacific market. The first few days of the week were very quiet, with basically no business concluded in the area. After Wednesday Korean operators finished their period and drove the area to a quite normal level. In the last days of the week the feeling on rates (especially on Handysize for short period) was good, which was also helped by a good quantity of orders coming out from the US West Coast.
Handy (North Europe/Mediterranean)
The Continent market was still seeing good fixtures, also with the help of commodities like scrap and clinker which were paying a premium in case of need to breach IWL. A little less activity from the Black Sea and Med, even if level were still high (thanks to the ice situation in most of Ukrainian ports, which was paying a premium).
Handy (USA/N.Atlantic/Lakes/S.America)
In the beginning of the week rates for the trip USG- Cont Med were seen in the very low 30k, in line with the end of the previous week. Then fresh cargoes, positive feeling for the short period and good numbers on the paper have driven rates in the mid 30k again also with operators thinking in a positive way. The South America was still firm. It seems fresh cargoes have to arrive shortly in the market. Anastasia S was fixed at 33 k for trip East which was a really good level.
Handy (Indian Ocean/South Africa)
Chinese New Year was probably the reason why we have seen few fixtures of iron ore from India to China and generally less activity in the Indian Ocean basin. However, Supras were still getting numbers in the high 30k for trip East from ECI and also period activity was getting an improvement in this area. There were still many cargoes coming out ex Richards bay to various direction between the MEG and India (both the coasts). Rates were in line with the previous week.