Cement News tagged under: Freight Markets

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Markets are looking up

22 April 2004, Published under Cement News

After several weeks of a steady fall, rates seem to be on their way up again for all sizes. Capes were prompt to react especially in the Pacific and the number of ships open remains limited. The Panamax market is burgeoning on two branches, with an intense coal activity driven by the Japanese in the Pacific area and the attraction of the South American grain season now ready to start. Despite a more intense fixing activity, following the same path as larger sizes, Handymax rates are slower t...

Cautious optimism for intensified trading

15 April 2004, Published under Cement News

The dry bulk market sees through a static period at the moment. With the Easter week having passed, a rather dull period is hoped to have come to an end. The future prospect of intensified world-wide trading up to the summer is expected with cautiousness, especially with the grain harvests on the Southern hemisphere starting in due course. Major steel producers are planning output rises, which could be warmly received by the market. On the other hand, the continuous rise of steel prices rema...

Rate improvements across the board yet to materialise

06 April 2004, Published under Cement News

After a short pause marked by the spot Cape market during the previous week, the last five trading days have recorded a deeper dive of rates. In a low volume of business Capesize rates have fallen back to the levels they had six months ago, except for long commitments (over one year) for which some deals have again broken record figures. Despite some more activity in the Atlantic, rates have failed to progress for Panamaxes as there are still a lot of ships available in the area, but the sit...

Under pressure

30 March 2004, Published under Cement News

The turmoil in which the Capes were navigating for two weeks seemed to calm down but by the end of the week the overall activity started to slow down again. Despite the Atlantic Panamax market seeing some more fixing activity, rates remained under pressure due to the number of ships willing to stay in the area. Handymax rates kept on sliding downwards.                       The Atlantic Panamax market continued to be active with owners still keen to...

No major pick-up as yet

24 March 2004, Published under Cement News

The downward trend that the market has been feeling since the middle of last week, mainly due to congestion and force majeure problems in Australian ports and a slow start to the South American grain season, has again curbed rates this week. This has been highly sensitive for Capsize tonnage and to a lesser extent for Panamax ships. Both owners and charterers seem to be waiting for the situation to settle, just fixing short-term commitments and thinking that this correction is no more than t...

Volatile markets

17 March 2004, Published under Cement News

As it was anticipated last week, dry bulk markets were volatile. The Capesize segment ended the week just a few points above the previous week after a mid week downward correction. Panamaxes have regained the ground lost over the past three weeks, but a slowdown in activity was felt during the last two trading days. The HandyMax market remains firm, as it has been since early February. Record-breaking prices have been achieved for yard-resale transactions with prompt deliveries now approachi...

Towards the doldrums ?

02 March 2004, Published under Cement News

Contrary to last week when all dry bulk markets were on their way up, rates have experienced a rather severe correction especially since the middle of the week. With a lack of activity in the Atlantic, the Capesize market was the first to take a dive back to levels last seen at the end of last year. It was followed soon by the Panamax but to a lesser extent, thanks to some business coming from the ECSA. Handymaxes so far have not been much affected by this downturn and rates have only suffer...

Rates rising after short-lived blip

24 February 2004, Published under Cement News

The blip of the dry bulk markets has been relatively short-lived. Since the middle of the week, both the Capesize and Panamax markets have started to see rates increasing substantially, and China SB type ships, for example have succeeded in getting rates in the region of US$100,000 for fronthaul trips. These firmer trends have spread to the Panamax sector, with fronthaul rates back to a level close to U$50,000/day. As far as HandyMax and Handysize are concerned, both basins have also recorde...

Handy markets slowing down but gearing up for rebound

17 February 2004, Published under Cement News

The Capesize voyage market suffered a drop in both basins, and even if the fall was more obvious in the Pacific than in the Atlantic, now all industry players are awaiting the evolution in the coming weeks. Is just a temporary blip, or a change in trend. Some lower than expected world economic growth was mentioned also this week. However, if the situation is rather similar for Panamax, many charterers are still confident the market will rebound in the short time. The number of vessels taken ...

Panamax down but Handy going strong

11 February 2004, Published under Cement News

The dry bulk markets, with the exception of the HandyMax and Handysize sectors have seen some changes, especially the Panamax one, which lost some ground in the East, where the availability of tonnage was enough to cover all the short-haul inquiries and in the Atlantic where demand was a bit less active. In that context, the BPI lost 286 points during the five trading days of the week. Some tonnage has started to ballast to the more lucrative Atlantic market. Despite an overall 91-point rise...