Ocean Freight Comments
Transportation and Export Report: Jay O’Neil, O’Neil Commodity Consulting: Ocean freight markets in the Atlantic got a little bounce this week. The Baltic indices are higher in the Atlantic but still under pressure in the Pacific. As usual the physical markets have not moved as much and remain a buyers’ market. The smaller size vessels are faring better than the big ones and that trend is likely to continue for quite a while. China remains the big story. Everyone knows their demand for raw materials has slowed substantially and we are now watching to see the impact of China’s new corn support program and how it affects (slows) the flow of feed grain imports. Corn, sorghum, barley, DDGS and Cassava will certainly be impacted.
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 Hong Kong.
