Ocean Freight Comments
Transportation and Export Report: Jay O’Neil, O’Neil Commodity Consulting: There really is not much new to say about current global ocean freight markets. This week Dry-Bulk markets have been characterized as “trading in a narrow range.” This simply means that things aren’t moving much, and we have reached a bit of a stalemate between buyers and sellers in a market without many features. Thus, rates are mostly unchanged.
U.S. Gulf and PNW grain vessel lineups are diminishing from past weeks and there is not any robust demand out of the East Coast of South America. The only market on fire has been the small coaster market in the Black Sea where rates have gotten outrageously high ($40-plus per MT regionally) due to a shortage of small 2-3,000 MT vessels.
Below is a recent history of freight values for Capesize vessels of iron ore from Western Australia to China:
The charts below represent YTD 2017 versus 2016 annual totals for container shipments to South Korea.
