Ocean Freight Comments
Transportation and Export Report: Jay O’Neil, O’Neil Commodity Consulting: It was another mixed week in dry-bulk markets without any well-defined direction. Markets were down and took away some recent excitement but did not indicate that a new trend has developed. Port weather problems in China, combined with uncertain global economic news due to rising covid-19 infections, took the wind out of the market’s sails. Vessel owners do not want to give up the ship yet and are still pushing for higher rates; but will have to wait for new fuel to stoke the fire.
Last week the Union Pacific railroad announced their Chicago container yard is congested and they will stop hauling ocean containers from U.S. West Coast ports to their Joliet, Illinois facility from July 18-24. This week, the BNSF railroad joined in by limiting the flow of containers to their Chicago yard for the next two weeks.
