Ocean Freight Comments
Transportation and Export Report: Jay O’Neil, O’Neil Commodity Consulting: Were Global Dry-Bulk markets up or are down again this week? The answer is a little bit of both. For the most part it was a quiet week without much featured. The Capesize and Panamax vessels had difficulty holding the line on rates but the Supramax and Handymax, in relative terms, did a bit better. Vessel markets are mostly trying to determine which way to go. Cargo demand has not picked up much but vessel owners are reluctant to sell at lower numbers. While North American freight markets were a sideways affair this week, South American rates slipped back with vessel supply down there overbalancing anticipated cargo demand. The Baltic Index forward curve for all vessel sizes does not project a bullish outlook.
On the interior logistics situation, barge navigation on the lower Mississippi River has reopened but it will take a bit more than a week for empty barges to get up north and for service to get back to normal levels.
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 Vietnam.
