Ocean Freight Comments
Transportation and Export Report: Jay O’Neil, O’Neil Commodity Consulting: This week was another example of how the Baltic paper market does not exactly follow the physical freight markets. Baltic index traders got a bit optimistic and moved the indices up a little this week. All-in-all it was not a very impressive rally, but the indices didn’t fall any further. The physical freight markets continue to look soft and daily hire rates are not much changed week-over-week.
Until we get better definition in the markets, I am going to have to call rates mostly unchanged for the week.
Below is a recent history of freight values for Capesize vessels of iron ore from Western Australia to South China:
The charts below represent 2017 annual totals versus 2016 annual totals for container shipments to South Korea.
