Ocean Freight Comments
Transportation and Export Report: Jay O’Neil, O’Neil Commodity Consulting: It was another one of those too-typical weeks in dry-bulk markets. The week started out stronger with lots of promise but lost steam by the weeks’ end. The market is still up slightly from last week’s prices but lower than Tuesday’s trade. All freight markets know they need to move rates higher to cover increasing costs; but are struggling to maintain the full thrust of recent market moves. It is mostly a case of physical players being reluctant to follow paper traders’ lead. Dry bulk freight, however, has done a better job of raising rates compared to the container shipping sector. Backhaul container rates have been relatively flat over the past six months. Some Southeast Asian markets are now starting to see delivered container grain rates below that of CIF dry-bulk. If this trend continues, and I believe it will, there should be a slight shift over to more containerized grain sales verses dry-bulk to Northern and Southeast Asia.
