Asia Dry Bulk – No Sign of Improvement in Capesize Rates as Owners Lay-up Ships - Maritime and Salvage Wolrd News

By Keith Wallis

SINGAPORE, March 19 (Reuters) – Rates for capesize bulk carriers, which have been near six-year lows for the final two months, present little signal of enchancment as a tonnage glut and shortage of cargo proceed to weigh available on the market, brokers mentioned.

Owners’ gloom concerning the state of the capesize market has led a number of operators to place their 180,000 dwt (deadweight tonne) capesize vessels in “hot lay-up”, a Singapore-based capesize dealer mentioned on Thursday.

That is the place ships are anchored, onboard gear together with engines partially mothballed and the crew is minimize to save lots of prices for an prolonged interval.

“There are six or seven ships we know about,” the dealer added. That indicated these homeowners noticed little prospect of a big enchancment within the capesize marketplace for six to 9 months, the dealer mentioned.

Average day by day capesize freight charges have been beneath day by day working prices since mid-December, knowledge from British delivery providers agency Clarkson confirmed.

“The capesize market is pretty grim,” the Singapore dealer mentioned. Iron ore miners together with Rio Tinto, BHP Billiton and Vale are nonetheless chartering vessels however fixtures are fewer, he mentioned.

Cargo volumes from Brazil and Australia, which usually rise within the second quarter on higher climate, is not going to enhance as a result of each international locations skilled dry situations within the first quarter, Norwegian ship dealer Fearnley mentioned in a weekly analysis be aware on Wednesday.

Charter charges for the Western Australia-China route hovered round $4.42 per tonne on Wednesday, just about unchanged from every week earlier. Rates are nonetheless near $4.12 per tonne reached on Jan. 12, the bottom since December 2008.

Rates for the Brazil-China route slipped to $10.10 per tonne on Wednesday, decrease than $10.52 per tonne final week. Rates dropped to $9.65 per tonne on Jan. 9, the bottom since January 2009.

Freight charges within the smaller panamax market are prone to fall subsequent week as accessible tonnage will increase on all main routes in Asia, brokers mentioned.

“Rates are definitely under pressure from a whole lot of tonnage and not much cargo,” a Singapore-based panamax dealer mentioned on Thursday.

Rates for a panamax transpacific voyage rose barely to $5,400 on Wednesday, in contrast with $5,370 per day final Wednesday.

Freight charges for smaller supramax bulk carriers have been largely flat this week round $8,000 per day for a spherical journey to India’s west coast, Fearnley mentioned.

The Baltic Exchange’s fundamental sea freight index closed up at 571 on Wednesday, in opposition to 565 final week. (Reporting By Keith Wallis; Editing by Prateek Chatterjee)