Ocean Freight Comments
Transportation and Export Report: Jay O’Neil, O’Neil Commodity Consulting: It was a bit of a mixed picture in global freight markets this week with the Baltic Freight Indices sliding back in the Atlantic and Mediterranean markets but firming in the Pacific. The Baltic Dry-Bulk Index in the Atlantic did post an uptick on Thursday night, and we will have to see if that can hold into next week. Once again the physical freight markets chose not to follow the rally in the Baltic indices and remain suspicious and defensive. U.S. harvest weather is excellent and we will see a good increase in soybean and corn harvest activity over the next two weeks. The big question is: will better corn and soybean supply and cheap prices encourage a significant uptick in export demand?
Below is a recent history of freight values for Capesize vessels of iron ore from Western Australia to China:
The charts below represent January-December 2014 annual totals versus year-to-date 2015 container shipments to Malaysia.
