Ocean Freight Comments
Transportation and Export Report: Jay O’Neil, O’Neil Commodity Consulting: It was another week of mixed results in global dry-bulk freight markets. The Capesize vessel market did show some improvement and helped to support Panamax values. Supramax and Handymax vessel segments, however, were lower for the week. There still has not been significant cargo growth in any sector to make a solid bullish argument for higher rates. We can most likely expect to see markets that bounce up and down slightly but do not provide any new direction until the global tariff situation is settled.
Container lines continue to strive for better efficiencies through consolidation and alliances, which they hope will enable then to reduce competition and give support to rate increases. But the loss of container grain business to China is weighing on export volumes of grains and co-products.
The charts below represent 2018 YTD totals versus 2017 annual totals for container shipments to Vietnam.
