Ocean Freight Comments
Transportation and Export Report: Jay O’Neil, O’Neil Commodity Consulting: I do not see anything very new or exciting in global ocean freight markets this week. We do continue to see the Baltic Index traders trying to move the indices up, but physical markets are just not following. Next week China will be on holiday and I imagine that things will get even quieter.
Capesize vessels are currently earning about $10,250/day in the spot market and are bid at $11,300 for October. Panamax vessels are getting $5,300/day in the spot market but can find bids at $6,600 for October. So, there remains some optimism in the thinking that things will improve some as we get into the gut slot of the North American grain harvest. However, these daily hire rates are not all that much of an improvement over what has been paid for the last number of months. The freight markets are not out of the dog house yet.
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 Thailand.
