Ocean Freight Comments
Transportation and Export Report: Jay O’Neil, O’Neil Commodity Consulting:It must be Black Friday in global Dry-Bulk markets as everything is bargain priced. It will not be a jolly Christmas for vessel owners, but charterers and international buyers are getting the gift of lower prices.
The Baltic Dry-Bulk index closes were very late in being published today; maybe someone was trying to hide the terrible results? It was another down week for the Baltic indices and for physical rates, which does not bode well for the Q1 2015 outlook if you are a vessel owner.
As is its job, the market is sending a message to vessel owners and their financers. Stop building new ships!
If they cannot logically come to this conclusion on their own the market will force the issue and it will be painful.
Below is a recent history of freight values for Capesize vessels of iron ore from Western Australia to China:
The charts below represent January-December 2013 annual totals versus year-to-date 2014 container shipments to Philippines.
