Ocean Freight Comments
Transportation and Export Report: Jay O’Neil, O’Neil Commodity Consulting: The Baltic Indices moved up this week and have been attempting to show some strength. However, there has again been some “separation or disconnect” between the paper and physical markets. Freight buyers are just not convinced there is a strong reason to chase the market up.
The Panamax and Supramax sectors have seen improved cargo demand in the North Atlantic with coverage of short term tonnage. Most of the action has been in the Atlantic with the Pacific lagging behind. Freight bids and offers are getting farther apart with Panamax rates to Japan bid at $31.00/MT and offered at $34.00/MT. This makes it a bit more difficult to place an exact dollar figure on just what rate is appropriate for is market. The higher offers for voyage charters have made some move to short term time charters for coverage. It is interesting to see sales of two-to-three cargoes of Brazilian corn into the U.S. East coast for August arrival.
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 2014 annual totals versus year-to-date 2015 container shipments to Malaysia.
