Capesize (Atlantic and Pacific)
Very little trading over the past two holiday-season weeks because of Christmas and New Year. In view of this the Capesize market went considerably down: BCI lost 818 points, the average of the 4 T/c routes lost $ 8,766 daily reaching the average of $ 149,828 daily. Modern 172,000 dwt are running today at just below $ 150,000 for T/a rounds, and at about $ 197,000 for fronthauls; about $ 150,000 level for Pacific rounds and below $ 100,000 for T/c trip backhauls. Tubarao/Rdam rate it has been fixed at about $ 40, while the Iron Ore from W.C.Australia to China is running at about $ 32/32.25 while the coal ex Richards Bay to Continent at about $ 39/39.25. At the time of writing this report there are no relevant signs of a possible revival of the market and therefore expect market should weaken further as there are not many quoted cargoes, expecially in Far East. Period activity very very marginal.
Panamax (Atlantic and Pacific)
As expected the Holidays have a big negative impact to the market and have depressed it substantially, especially in the Pacific. In the Atlantic rates stalled due to quite number of prompt ships and lack of fresh inquiries also some of fixtures failed and some vessels missing cancelling. The Pacific continued its freefall, spot rates dropped of abt $7,000 at the end of week -howeverthere were signs that maybe we had reached the bottom of this current rates as a number of charterers tried to fix tonnage for short period. The sentiment for future and forward positions is positive as we can start seeing fresh inquires for end January/early February.
Handy (Far East/Pacific)
The New Year started showing a further decrease on rates. The gap between the available tonnages and the small volume of enquiry has generated further pressure on rates, additionally several fixtures were failed on subs. At the end of the week some fresh enquiries were circulated, which in combination with charterers renewed interest for short period fixing brought some optimism that the market may recover before the oriental early February holidays will come and possibly bring new idleness.
Handy (North Europe/Mediterranean)
No fixtures were reported concluded for loading out of the Continent or Mediterranean/Black Sea waters. This area appeared to be the more affected by the Christmas and New Year festivities, but the on-going strong demand for tonnage to load out of Atlantic Americas has kept owners of tonnage open this side still quite busy.
Handy (USA/N.Atlantic/Lakes/S.America)
An initial quiet start didn't affect rates from the Us Gulf both for Transatlantic and Eastbound business. Even if the available tonnage on prompt position is a lot, the volume of the enquiry is even larger and activity appears unable to stop or slow down. An even more quiet start of the South American market showed a considerable fresh ignition of enquiry at the end of the week.
Handy (Indian Ocean/South Africa)
It is still the iron ore export from India to China keeping this area active. Even if just three vessels were reported fixed and no other chartering activity in these waters was heard, rates remained pretty much healthy, both for loading West and East coast of India.
Banchero Costa and Co Spa
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