Capesize (Atlantic and Pacific)
A busier week as the market taking a turn with tentative signs to change market direction as already seen at the end of last week The rate on the West Australia to China run went over US$ 11.00 and moved sharply in the space of 24 hours. There was instead little activity in the Atlantic market, however numbers improved. There is still a large amount of ballasters from Far East and K Line fixed a 180,000 dwt for an iron ore cargo from Tubarao to Rotterdam on time-charter at US$ 45,000 daily plus US$ 800,000 ballast bonus.
Panamax (Atlantic and Pacific)
A very good week for Panamax business in both basins with significant improvements in both activity and rates. Tonnage was tighter in the Atlantic, and charterers with cargoes to move from the East Coast South America were forced to increase their rates to find ships to go to the East, on top of rising Capezise market gave a further boost. In the Pacific, rates there improved sharply with fresh business quoted and still with a good demand for ballasters to load in the South America. Good activity in short period where rates hovered around the low 30000s in the East and very high 30000s in the West. Also for 1 year period market moved up.
Handy (Far East/Pacific)
Market kept improving in this area leading to the North Pacific round voyage run quickly reaching the usd 23,000 daily timecharter rate for Supramaxes and increasing a little further afterwards. The chartering demand for loading out of Australia was less significant for the larger units and a little more active for the smaller Handies. Enquiry from the South East Asia was significant, with the coal and nickel ore imports to China still running actively on Supramax sized stems which led the rates for the China round voyages to mid 20,000 level for the larger units. The positive market trend for owners which this area was enjoying was further underlined by the several period fixtures agreed for durations from 4 to 6 months up to one year trading, all concluded well over the usd 20,000 level for the larger units.
Handy (North Europe/Mediterranean)
Smaller Handies led the fixing activity from the Black Sea because charterers were mostly interested to book cargoes for discharging into the Red Sea, for which they had to book tonnage one round voyage with Port Said redelivery basis at fairly good numbers. Otherwise reported activity from this area was limited to a Handymax fixture fetching positive rate for a trip to India. The chartering demand from Northern Europe showed a considerable slow down with interest of the scrap into East Med fading away, but rate agreed for a Handysize trip to the Far East looked fat enough, especially considering it should be ending up in a presently growing market.
Handy (USA/N.Atlantic/Lakes/S.America)
Activity for larger Handies out of this area was quite sluggish showing rates hardly managed to keep close enough to last done's level while firmer rates were available for the smaller units on the trans-Atlantic run. The on going period interest with bookings finalized at nice levels showed there was still a lot of trust from charterers in this market. Towards the end of the week the volume of the enquiry increased and even if up to now most of the concluded activity was kept under wraps, the optimism from owners into the forthcoming week has grown up considerably.
Handy (Indian Ocean/South Africa)
The usd 40,000 daily timecharter was reported fixed this week on a Supramax West Coast India/China iron ore run, but the excitement from this figure didn't last with subsequent fixtures even from the East Coast concluded at usd 2000/3000 daily less. In an otherwise quiet chartering activity, Handysizes showed to enjoy extremely firm rates for East-bound business.
Banchero Costa and Co Spa
Mail: research@bancosta.it
Web: www.bancosta.it