Ocean Freight Comments
Transportation and Export Report: Jay O’Neil, O’Neil Commodity Consulting: It was another mixed week for dry-bulk freight markets. The Capesize sector did manage to ratchet up a bit and close higher for the week, but it ran into some resistance at week’s end. Speculative buying aided the rally. Panamax vessel markets were up and down in choppy trade. By week’s end they could not hold the rally and closed slightly below where they started. We will have to see if the relative strength in the Capesize market can keep the Panamax side from sliding further.
Below is a recent history of freight values for Capesize vessels of iron ore from Western Australia to South China:
The charts below represent 2018 YTD totals versus 2017 annual totals for container shipments to Taiwan.
