Ocean Freight Comments
Transportation and Export Report: Jay O’Neil, O’Neil Commodity Consulting: Baltic Freight Traders staged a decent rally this week. The Baltic Panamax index rose to 1,109; up 18 percent from last week’s close. As usual, the physical market did not follow in lock step. Physical markets were up 1-2 percent week-over-week and did not exhibit as much enthusiasm as the Baltic Index Traders seem to have. The larger Capesize freight markets actually fell back a bit this week.
What is concerning, however, is that I see the orders for new vessels starting to creep back up. This is not what the market needs and is just a continued example of why vessel owners are their own worst enemy. Will they ever learn?
Below is a recent history of freight values for Capesize vessels of iron ore from Western Australia to China:
The charts below represent YTD 2017 versus 2016 annual totals for container shipments to South Korea.
