Capesize
Positive week for Capesizes with 5TC gaining USD 2,000 ending on Friday at USD 16,741. The week was characterized by improving rates until Wednesday followed by a slight decline at the end of the week. The standard C5 West Australia / China jumped at USD 9.60 pmt on Wednesday for end March dates with all the miners in the market seeking tonnage before correcting down to low USD 9's for similar l/c. The timecharter rates therefore reached the peak of USD 22,000 and closed at USD 20,000 on Friday the Saldanha Bay / China traded in the region of USD low 15's. Some activity recorded out of Brazil with the C3 very volatile trading from USD 18 pmt upto 20 pmt for second half April and then softening again to low 19's. Some fixtures were concluded for prompter dates like end March / early April in the region of high USD 17's / USD 18 pmt due to some ballasters still off Brazil. In the Atlantic the market remained quiet with few cargoes and vessels around. The C9 and C8 stood at low 30,000 and 17,000 respectively. Due to strong FFA values the period activity was supported with 1 year period at very low USD 20,000 bss dely ppt onward in Far East.
Panamax
The Pacific market recorded another healthy week thanks to a good level of activity in most of the loading areas and a tighter tonnage list. Especially in the North a shortage of vessels had been a great help in supporting rates for Nopac biz, reported fixed in the mid 20k on kmx, and Aussie rv where a very good specs kmx reported fixed in the high 20k bss dely Japan. Indo cgos relied on a wider availability of vsls but at the same time chrtrs had to deal with an ECSA mkt that is still attracting many ballasters from SporeSouth East Asia area. Ratewise no relevant changes had been registered, pmxs still fixing in the low 20k bss dely south China as last week. Despite a quite substantial drop on the paper values on Wednesday, we haven't seen the same trend on the physical market for what concerns ECSA and NCSA. Offers for fronthauls seem actually better than last Friday, with cheapest ships asking the equivalent of USD 50/50.25 pmt calculated on the Santos / Qingdao route, which is a good 3 dollars more expensive than the sharpest offers registered last Friday. Among the most recent fixtures for trip Far East we have seen a 75k dwt 2001 built fixed at 19,500 delivery Singapore with a major grain house and a 76k 2006 built did 21,500 with Scorpio. On the NCSA front, Bunge fixed an 82k at 24k aps for redelivery Skaw Passero, int Spain. North Atlantic is the area which suffered the biggest losses this week, especially due to lack of cargoes out the Baltic and USEC/USG : for this reason we have seen, since a long time, ballasters from Gib and Continent being fixed for ECSA t/a : Cofco fixed mv Green kmax 5 80k dwt 2020 built at 20k bss dely Gib and redely Skaw-Spain while also took the mv bulk Croatia 81/20 at 28k but bss aps ECSA and scrubber benefit for owner's account. Black Sea instead keeps living the good momentum: Greek lme mv Athina 07 blt has been fixed at around mid 20ies basis delivery wc India for Black Sea to feast by Ocean Base while Itiro fixed the mv Chryssak k 81k dwt at USD 33,500 daily dely Madeira on the same run.
Far East/Pacific
After a fairly stable week, the Far East market started to increase exponentially again. Indices of the most representative routes showed an increase of more than 3,000 dollars both on Supramaxes and on Handies. Regarding China direction, a 61,000 dwt delivering CJK was fixed at 24,250/day for a trip via Indonesia to south China and a 56,000 dwt delivering Thailand was reported to be done at 25,000/day for a trip via Indonesia to China with coal. Regarding west direction, a 56,000 dwt delivering Vietnam was rumoured to be fixed at 21,500/day for a trip to west coast India. On Handies, a 31,000 dwt delivering South Korea took 20,350/day for a trip to Vietnam with steel products and a 34,000 dwt delivering Vietnam was reported to be done at 25,000/day for a trip to north China with clinker.
North Europe/Mediterranean/Black Sea
Healthy market in the Continent for all sizes, albeit an adjustment on rates is awaited, levels done kept firm /steady trend. A vintage 28k dwt blt late 90's open UK fxd grains lower Baltic to west Med on voy bss at TCE in excess of 20k USD dop. A nice 40k dwt opn Norway fixed inter-Cont voy via ice free port at TCE of 30k USD dop, while a 35k dwt took a nice 25k USD dop ARA for trip via ice port into east coast Mex with Ferts, fronthaul still fixed in low 30's USD daily subs redel. Owners are keeping a bullish mood for the week ahead as nice 38k dwt opn Cont calling 33,000 USD dop trip to west Med with grains... but yet to see this number fxd. Bigger size same mood: small Smx (50k dwt) fxd a solid 25k dop ARA for trip to USEC, run to east Med with scrap kept the same level: 25k dop got by 56k dwt opn UK and fronthaul still in the low 30's dop. Expectations for next week are good albeit a feeling of a correction on rates started to appear at the horizon. During the week the Black Sea market has remained generally stable with the Supramaxes slightly down while the Handies, going up, overcome them in few routes. The Handies are now getting numbers around 20,000 bss Canakkale for trip to Cont and 19,500 for cross-Med, the level for Supramaxes is respectively 20,000 (same as Handies) and 20,500 per trip within the Mediterranean. The trip to US Gulf are paid USD 21,000 on Handies and USD 18.500 on Supras, while the trip via Black Sea to east coast South America is getting USD 20,500 for Handies and only 18,000 for Supras. For what concerns fronthaul the 38k dwt Handies seem have surpassed the Tess 58, USD 35,000 against USD 34,000. While the trip to West Africa is getting same money for both sizes USD 28,000 same rate for dely Canakkale or west Med.
US Gulf/N.America/East Coast S.America
Supramax and Ultramax started the week as per the previous but towards the end softened as seems the count of the ships higher than the count of the cargoes. Sentiment might be changing downwards slightly, so levels for Supramaxes are around 30,000's and around low 30,000 for tarv on Ultras. For fronthauls Ultras are around mid 30,000 and Supras around 30,000/low 30,000s. Small premium if petcoke loading of 1000 dollars. The Handysizes market instead remains strong with good demand. Might predict a small adjustment downwards on the rates if Supras will softer more. But for now 32/35,000 dwt are around low 20,000s and the larger 36/39,000 dwt in the mid high 20,000s for tarv. 1000/1500 dollars premium for petcoke loading. The market in east coast South America was still improving on the Handy and Supramax sizes. On the Handies there were rumours that a nice 35,000 dwt modern and geared was fixed at around USD 35,000 basis dely aps ECSA for one trip with grains into Cont-Med range basis duration 35 days wog. There were also estimates that a nice and modern 35,000 dwt was valued for fronthaul around USD 38,000 bss aps east coast South America. On the Supramax front there were rumours that a nice and fancy Tess 58 was fixed at USD 38,000 basis dely east coast South America for one trip into Continent - Mediterranean range.
Indian Ocean/South Africa
AG-WCI belt saw improvements on Supra/Umx sector whereas ECI saw a slight slump in numbers as compared to the week before. From AG a umx was heard fixed for backhaul to ECSA at 22k levels. For a trip via AG to WCI with petcoke a 55k tonner was heard fixed at mid 27k dop WCI. From WCI a 60k umx was heard to be fixed at 42-42,500 levels for WCI to China with iron ore in bulk. Another 57k tonner for same trip was heard to have got in mid-high 30s. One 63k dwt vsl in WCI was rumoured to have fixed at 34k levels for 2/3 ll redel China. On the period front, umx open Pakistan was heard to be fixed at mid 26k for 3/5 mos early in the week. Later a 55k tonner in AG was heard to be fixed at 28k levels for period abt 4/6 mos. Towards the end of the week a 45k tonner in ECI was heard to be fixed for 1 year period at high 18k. From ECI for the iron ore biz to China - though mkt seemed to push early part of the week with a 63k fetching 24k dop south China levels for trip via ECI to China, towards the end of the week returned to more or less at the levels of previous week with 53k tonners fixing arnd 32-33k levels dop ECI for China direction. Not much came to light from south Africa but Supras in the area were aiming in the range of 17k + 700k levels for safr coal to WCI-PG range.
Banchero Costa and Co Spa
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