Ocean Freight Comments
Transportation and Export Report: Jay O’Neil, O’Neil Commodity Consulting: Vessel owners and FFA traders are hoping dry-bulk freight markets have finally hit bottom and are bouncing higher. The last three weeks were very dramatic, and painful, for vessel owners and paper traders who were long. This week saw a slow recovery from last week’s big fall in values. The market recovery has not been robust but, at least, seems to have stopped the free fall correction in rates. Current market values are still below last week’s close but are an improvement from this week’s earlier lows. We are heading into the December-January holiday season and will have to see which side of the market is more motivated before the Christmas and New Year holidays down time arrives.
Container rates continue to fall and there is hope that logistics will start to improve after the Christmas holiday season. But supply chain problems still exist and empty spaces on store shelves remain. It will take time to resolve the multitude of issues involved in port and interior logistics.
