Ocean Freight Comments
Transportation and Export Report: Jay O’Neil, O’Neil Commodity Consulting: Dry-bulk ocean freight markets continue dancing to an up and down beat that provides trading opportunities but makes little headway either direction. This has been another mixed week that resulted in little net movement in rates. Most market optimism remans out in Q2 and forward positions.
The hottest market appears to be the Handymax and Supramax sectors in the U.S. Gulf where vessel supply is tight. Daily hire rates in the Panamax sector traded at $12,600 for February-March and at $12,750 for Q2. There has not yet been an observable jump in Panamax fixtures from the U.S. PNW to China but looking at the widening spread in the U.S. PNW-Gulf corn basis, such pricing is likely is occurring.
