Ocean Freight Comments
Transportation and Export Report: Jay O’Neil, O’Neil Commodity Consulting: The Bulls got a hold of the Baltic Indices this week and were able to move the technical charts up gradually each day. By week’s end they had pushed the Dry-Bulk Panamax Index up by 11-17 percent.
Once again, the physical markets reluctantly followed – albeit at a slower pace. I frankly do not see the full justification of this market rally, but it has moved steadily up without asking for, or caring about, my opinion. We are entering the North American fall harvest period and additional cargo interest will surely develop as we move into the October-November period. So, this market could find a bit more support before it settles back.
The Texas Gulf ports of Houston, Galveston and Corpus Christi reopened Monday and Tuesday of this week and most grain export facilities are working vessels again. General rail service to the ports has been restored and shuttle trains are slowly moving out from the Midwest to the ports on reduced schedules. Things are gradually returning to “normal,” but operations will certainly not be back up to full speed until next week. My hat is off to the employees of these export facilities, many of whom are back at work despite not having a home to return to.
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 Malaysia.
