Ocean Freight Comments
Transportation and Export Report: Jay O’Neil, O’Neil Commodity Consulting: I would like to give you a lot of exciting news about the freight markets, but there just isn’t any. The market is in the dull summer holiday period and is tracking lower. So, at the risk of sounding like a broken record, I will just say that overall things are down on reduced volumes. At 962, the Baltic Panamax index is back down to where it was in late June and feels like it will slip further.
The Capesize market was able to muster some support from improved iron ore business out of West Australia, and is slightly higher for the week. Everyone is anticipating better (higher) markets once we get into the October-November new crop harvest period in North America.
No significant new news yet in the PNW Grain elevator International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU) labor situation.
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 Japan.
