Ocean Freight Comments
Transportation and Export Report: Jay O’Neil, O’Neil Commodity Consulting: With support from improved Q3 time charter rates the Baltic Panamax and Handymax indices gathered enough momentum to generate a good rally this week. The Capesize market, however, did not move much from last week’s levels. Physical Dry-Bulk freight markets moved up a little but, as often happens, but the physical freight markets did not get as excited as the traders on the Baltic Exchange.
The new expanded Panama Canal locks officially opened last Sunday. The Canal states that they have more than 170 neo-Panamax ship transit reservations already booked for the new locks. Due to the weather effects from El Niño, the Canal is operating at less than the maximum draft capacities. Current vessel drafts at the new locks are set at 43 feet (13.10 meters) rather than the maximum 50 feet (15.24 meters). Every foot of draft lost equates to about 2,000 MT of cargo capacity.
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 South Korea.
