Freights exhibit summer lethargy
A relatively quiet month for the dry bulk markets with brokers reporting
fewer ships waiting to load at some of the earlier congested major bulk
ports and even the imminent arrival of the much-hyped Olympic games said to
be having an effect on freight movements and charter levels
China National Coal Group and China Shipping have launched a new joint
venture to ensure a smoother flow of domestic coal, and as such China is
expected to pump more resources into new handling systems to alleviate the
bottlenecks that impacted the market earlier this year.
The Panamax market continued its slide towards the end of July and the BPI
had retreated by close to 1000 points over the month. Sentiment is
definitely becoming more bearish on the spot sectors and the prospects for
both Atlantic and Pacific markets in the short term look weak in the
absence of further enquiry or support from the period market.
Lower down in size, the Supra/Handy secors saw the BSI index slide
throughout much of the month finishing late July at 5155 points. The
average of the Supramax routes lost over US$2000 to stand at US$53,898/ day.
Handysizes are still reportedly trading in the mid US$30,000s. Let’s see
what happens post the Chinese Olympics.
Published under Cement News
