Ocean Freight Comments
Transportation and Export Report: Jay O’Neil, O’Neil Commodity Consulting: And so it continues. Global ocean freight markets are showing no mercy towards vessel owners and continue to weaken and make new lows each week. At this point we do not have much farther to go before things reach the levels of February 2014 (7,721).
I’m not sure what more can be said of this market. Rates are dropping like a rock and vessel owners are in big trouble. The shipbuilding yards in Japan, Korea and China are also feeling the hurt and will be scaling back. This is not a positive picture for the entire shipping industry. Meanwhile, the very low Dry-Bulk rates will continue to put considerable competitive pressure on the percentage of containerized grain exports.
Below is a recent history of freight values for Capesize vessels of iron ore from Western Australia to China:
The charts below represent year-to-date 2015 versus January-December 2014 annual totals for container shipments to South Korea.
