Fearnleys Dry Bulk Market Report

Capesize Slow week with limited activity. The west Aussie miners have been very quiet this week, so the rates on this route remains flat. Some activity on Brazil to China, but rates have dropped and been fixed in the mid/high USD 5 pmt level. Limited cargoes from Saldanha to China and rates continued to drop, with rates fixed very close to USD 4 pmt mark. More owners realize that this year will be difficult and they are therefore trying to cover their tonnage on period, however the rates for short/medium period are not even covering operating costs at the moment, but are still at a premium to the present spot market. Short period in the Pacific is around USD 4000 daily while the spot market is around USD 2500. Panamax A steady decline, >15% w-o-w and “all time low” for Panamax. Fresh requirements are scarce in Atlantic. About 3000 on T/C, and < 5 pmt on voyage for short T/A rounds. Fronthaul activity limited, fixtures done at low 6000 on T/C. USG activity poor, paying 22-23 pmt or 9+90 APS. ECSA activity slow, at around 13 pmt or 3500 from India-Spore range alt 6000+150 APS. The Eastern Hemisphere is suffering even more, with levels APS 3+30 Indo/China around 4+100 for NOPAC mid-week and sliding. Owners asking mid 5’s for sh.period and <5k for about 1 year. Not much done. With a forward curve of 4500 for rest of year we might as well remember the famous words of good old Churchill; “If you’re going through hell, keep ... Handy W-O-W the rates are up from last week, but mid-week we see the market coming off again. Less fresh requirements in both hemispheres. In the Pacific, we see Aussie rounds being fixed in region of USD 3-4k bss delivery SE Asia. NoPac rounds fixing in region of USD 5k+70-80k GBB and trips Indo/India around 3-4k as well. In the Atlantic, we have been seeing some grains moving out of ECSA to Far East and Med. Trips into Med are fixing low 6k APS, while the Black Sea/Far East route fetch around USD mid 7k. The period market is very slow these days, but a good specked Smax should be able to fix in the very low 5’s for short period bss delivery Far East.