Market Perspectives – July 25, 2019

Ocean Freight Comments

Transportation and Export Report: Jay O’Neil, O’Neil Commodity Consulting:  It was a wild ride in Dry-Bulk freight markets this week. The week started stronger as bulls tried to move rates higher, but by Wednesday the wheels started to come off the wagon as paper sellers emerged to take profits. The Capesize market dropped over $1.00/MT off its high in 24 hours. The Baltic Dry Index fell over 3,000 points in the same time period and the Panamax sector followed as well. The Baltic indices and physical markets remained up slightly for the week but looked soft and were trending lower on market Thursday’s close. This is the first time since March-April 2014 that the Panamax rate from the U.S. Gulf to China has touched the $50.00 mark. The overall trend remains upward, but it looks as if things got moving a bit to far too fast over the past two weeks.