Ocean Freight Comments
Transportation and Export Report: Jay O’Neil, O’Neil Commodity Consulting: We have reached the last month of the year and it has produced neither what vessel owners and operators were hoping for nor expecting. The Q4 2014 market rally never happened and rates actually lost ground from their mid-year gains. It’s not going to be a good Christmas for fleet owners or their bankers. The big ships, the Capesize vessels that carry the iron ore to China, took the biggest hit this week as that market slowed its imports of bulk raw materials. Bunker fuel prices are down and that helps operating costs, but this market is still hurting vessel owners and trying to send them a message to quit ordering new vessels. And I cannot expect the first quarter of 2015 to be much different.
Below is a recent history of freight values for Capesize vessels of iron ore from Western Australia to South China:
The charts below represent January-December 2013 annual totals versus year-to-date 2014 container shipments to Malaysia.
