Ocean Freight Comments
Transportation and Export Report: Jay O’Neil, O’Neil Commodity Consulting: The Baltic Indices thought they found reason to rally this week and the physical markets reluctantly followed, albeit to a lesser degree. The Capesize vessel market actually slipped back a bit this week while the Panamax and Handymax markets showed a little strength. We will have to see if this market support can hold or if this is just another case of the freight markets bouncing around without any true direction.
The new and expanded Panama Canal is scheduled to open for business on Sunday and operators claim they have a lineup of vessels registered to move through the new locks.
Below is a recent history of freight values for Capesize vessels of iron ore from Western Australia to China:
The charts below represent year-to-date 2016 versus January-December 2015 annual totals for container shipments to Japan.
