Ocean Freight Comments
Transportation and Export Report: Jay O’Neil, O’Neil Commodity Consulting: It was a mixed week. The Capesize vessel market found continued support from the iron ore sector but Panamax grain freight markets seem to have topped out and fallen back a little.
Increases in net-cargo demand have been limited and tightness in available vessels has, so far, proven to be just positional and will quickly resolved once vessels ballast to the areas of need.
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 Japan.
