Ocean Freight Comments
Transportation and Export Report: Jay O’Neil, O’Neil Commodity Consulting: It is a bit difficult to fully assess the action in the dry-bulk sector this week as it was full of emotion and confusion. The Capesize sector suffered through a miserable week with the bid side of the market getting hit hard and subsequently sinking. Paper traders, however, saw fit to boost the Baltic Index values for Panamax size vessels, but then became confused over the impact of the Baltic announcement that they had decided to add new index descriptions for each shipment size following the IMO 2020 sulfur cap discussions. This rally may not have much follow-through; we will have to see how that goes next week and how it effects traders’ decisions. I am not at all convinced that vessel owners will be able to fully recover the added fuel costs that IMO 2020 regulations will create.
