December 31, 2018 – January 4, 2019 Weekly market report.. Banchero Costa

Wednesday, 09 January 2019 15:01:26 (GMT+3)   |   Istanbul
       

Capesize (Atlantic and Pacific)

As expected the Capesize market activity was definitely quiet due to Christmas and New Year’s holidays before recovering last week. The two standard routes Tubarao/Qingdao and West Australia/Qingdao remained pretty stable. The Tubarao/Qingdao was fixed in the $16/mt range with higher numbers close to $17/mt rumored at the end of the week. The West Australia/Qingdao was a bit more active with rates agreed in the mid $6’s/mt basis mid/end January dates and a high number of fixtures recorded at the end of the week.  In the Atlantic basin fronthaul rates remained in the high $20,000’s/d.

Panamax (Atlantic and Pacific)

The market remained lousy in all areas predominantly due to the Christmas holidays. In North Atlantic the list of spot vessels kept on growing and Owners tried to fix short interCont businesses to employ their vessels for this period, rates consequently went down even below the $10,000/day mark.  Same situation was recorded in the South American market where a lack of fresh enquires pushed rates under pressure. The Pacific market showed instead a good number of fresh cargoes either from Nopac or Indonesia but, due to the lousy South American market that prevented most of Owners to bring their ships South, the high offer of tonnage in the area kept the demand low. No fresh fixtures were recorded on period.

Handy (Far East/Pacific)

This side of the market wasn’t much affected by the Holidays freight crisis since Supramax and Ultramax activity increased before the end of the year with some fixtures concluded at slightly better levels, others unchanged and a quite frozen market at the starting of the new year, with spot time charter rates lower than $300/400/d except for transpacific trade that kept stable levels. At the end of 2018 an Ultramax dely Japan was fixed for a N Pacific round at $10,500/d, a 57k dwt dely N China was taken for a trip with steels to S East Asia at $7,000/d for the first 32 days and $10,000/d balance duration while a 56k dolphin type dely Thailand got $10,250/d for a trip with sand from Malaysia to C China. An Ultramax dely Malaysia fetched $12,000/d for a trip via Indo to WCI, a ‘dolphin type dely Vietnam performed a trip via Indo to Pak at $8,750/d and an Ultramax was fixed for a trip with clinkers from Vietnam to Bangladesh at $12,000/d. Another dolphin type dely C China fixed 3/6 months period at $7,500/ for the first 30 days and $11,000 thereafter. The only available news for Handysize was for a modern 29k dwt done at $6,750/d dely very N China for a trip to Spore/Taiwan range. A very slow start of the market was seen at the beginning of 2019: a ‘dolphin type’ was done at $7,500/d from CJK for a trip via Indo to SE Asia, and an Ultramax dely SKorea fixed at an unchanged $10,500/d for a trip via N Pacific to Spore/Japan range.

Handy (North Europe/Mediterranean)

Cont market slightly softened especially on the Handysize vessels: one modern 33k dwt fixed about 30,000 mts of coal from the Baltic to Praia Mole at $19.75/mt showing an equivalent of around $7,000/d. Even if no fixtures were recorded for Supramax and Ultramax, levels eased of around $1,000/d compared to the previous week both for Cont/Med and Cont/FEast routes. The New Year started with a negative trend in Med. A too high number of ships compared to an insufficient number of cargoes helped rates to fall on both Handysize and Supra/Ultramax markets. On smaller ships, rates settled at $9,000/d for trips within the Med and just above $10,000/d for trip back to US via Black Sea, while on the Supramax side Owners were seen still asking in the $11,000/12,000/d for trips to UKC and Charterers strongly disagreeing. The general feeling was that no sudden strong rise in the levels is expected, although the New Year and the ice situation could help to give a bit of unpredictability to the market.

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

Handysize rates were taken over by panic during the last two weeks with 35/38k dwt fixing in the low teens for TCTs to Cont/Med or even redely WC Americas. The 30/34k dwt were suffering even more. The Supramax market was softening as well but not collapsing as the Handysize one. Ultramax were fixing in the $28,000’s/d for TCT East with petcoke and Supramaxes in the high teens for TA voyages, thus $2,000/3,000/d less than mid-December. The tonnage list became longer and the market will further texted next week. Ttahe ECSAm market had a massive drop during the Holidays period. Rates levels for 38k dwt on TransAtlantic trip set the bar at 15,500/d to Cont/Med while trips FEast were paying in the high teens, around $18,000/18,500/d. Coastal trips in Brazil, even if supposed to pay $13,000/d, slowed down as some Supramax were heard fixed at $12,500/d. Supramaxes (tess 58 type) for trip to ContMed stepped down to the $16,500/d level while Ultramaxes were seeing numbers in the $16,500/17,000/d for same route. For the trip to Spore/Japan range Supramaxes were settling in the mid/high $13,000’s/d + $350,000/370,000 bb while the Ultramaxes were seeing $14,000/d + $400,000 bb.

Handy (Indian Ocean/South Africa)

In the final week of 2018, a 56k dwt was fixed in the high $13,000/d bss Fujairah for trip via UAE to Chittagong. For a Red Sea parcel to ECI a 58k dwt was heard to be fixed bss dop WCI at $13,000/d bss direct sailing. In the first week of 2019, for a UAE/Chittagong run a 53k dwt was heard to be fixed at high $12,000’s/d levels bss dop UAE. Later another 56k dwt was heard to be fixed at $12,000/d levels bss MEG dely. On the UAE/WCI a 57k dwt was understood to be fixed bss aps Mina Saqr in the low $11,000’s/d. From S Afr, ships were heard to have achieved around $11,750/d aps loadport + $175,000 bb for trips to India and to F East, which were considerably lower than the last heard levels of over $12,000/d aps + $200,000 bb.

Banchero Costa and Co Spa

Email: research@bancosta.it
Internet: www.bancosta.it


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