Ocean Freight Comments
Transportation and Export Report: Jay O’Neil, O’Neil Commodity Consulting: This week’s story was mostly a continuation of last week’s. We remain in the August doldrums and freight markets are waiting for the end of summer and a return of business. Gulf –Atlantic markets were softer all week but seemed to be leveling off as we hit the end of the week. Pacific Panamax markets continued to show some support and eked out small weekly gains. At this point I’m guessing that next week will prove to be a fairly flat market.
Below is a recent history of freight values for Capesize vessels of iron ore from Western Australia to China:
The charts below represent January-December 2011 and January-December 2012 annual totals versus January-June 2013 year-to-date container shipments for South Korea.
