Ocean Freight Comments
Transportation and Export Report: Jay O’Neil, O’Neil Commodity Consulting: Global ocean freight markets attempted to continue their upward movement this week, but seemed to have topped out at week’s end. Despite slightly higher values in the Baltic Indices, the physical markets appear to be mostly unchanged from last week’s levels. It is very difficult to muster a substantial price rally in a market that remains oversupplied with vessels. It is particularly disconcerting to read the headlines in some of the vessel news wires where they are once again asking the question- “Is now the time to buy new vessels?” When will they ever learn? Will it ever stop, or will the greed factor condemn this market for years to come?
I have heard U.S. traders discussing the possibility of French corn being imported into the U.S. East Coast due to the weak Euro. I’m not sure that this is going to actually happen, but would guess the freight rate to be close to $14.00/MT or so.
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 the Vietnam.
