Baltic Exchange: Maritime market highlights 5-9 April

Bulk carriers

-Capesize

• The Capesize market continued this week with its constant and relatively steady improvement in rate values. The Capesize 5TC lifted 4,058 over the shortened post-Easter holiday week to $23,911.
• While the Transpacific C10 remains the premium paying basin at $27,221, the Atlantic Basin C8 has closed the gap now rated to $19,850, albeit fixtures still remain few and far between in the region.

-Panamax

• The Panamax market was described by some as floorless this week, with significant declines across the board and at the time of writing no sign of halting.
• Despite owners’ resistance, a burgeoning tonnage count building – especially for the nearby position – combined with a lack of demand and a plunging FFA market heaped pressure on rates.
• No routes escaped corrections and a glut of fixing and failing vastly reduced voyage rates being concluded, culminating in the EC South America round trip delivery Singapore being valued circa $24,500 on Tuesday now being concluded in the $18,000’s for 82,000-dwt on same delivery.

-Ultramax/Supramax

• Overall, it was a quiet week after the Easter holidays in the West and Qingming Festival in the East. The BSI continued declining within the shortened week, with the time charter average now below $20,000 for the first time since the end of February this year.
• All key areas in the Atlantic appeared to be slow whilst rates further weakened.
• Tonnage started building up in the US Gulf with little enquiry to offer support.

-Handysize

• Since the yearly high so far on the 19 March at 1,360 points, the BHSI continued its steady fall this week and was today down to 1049 points – a drop of over 330 points in three weeks.
• This week alone, the HS4 has dropped from $15,208 last Thursday to $12,643 which is over $2,500.
• The Atlantic routes were hit the hardest with reports of lower than last done now being the norm.
• The shorter week due to Easter reduced the visibility of activity. However, a 38,000-dwt was rumoured to have fixed a trip from the US Gulf to the Spanish Mediterranean at $14,500, whilst a 28,000-dwt had fixed delivery SW pass for a trip to Turkey at $11,000.

Tankers

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-VLCC

• Rates have slipped in all sectors.
• In the Middle East, the market for 280,000mt Middle East to US Gulf trip (routing via the Cape/Cape) is assessed a point lower at WS18, while rates for 270,000mt to China have eased 1.5 points to about WS31.5 which shows a round-trip TCE of about $500 below zero and there are reports overnight of NPI taking a Frontline vessel at WS31 to Yingkou in North China.

-Suezmax

• In the 135,000mt Black Sea/Med market rates have fallen 7.5 points to the WS70 level (~$5,500/day TCE) while in the 130,000mt Nigeria/UK Continent market, rates have dipped by 1.5 points to the low WS60s (~$7.7k/day TCE).
• The assessment of the market for 140,000mt Basrah/Med remained flat at WS20.5 with fixtures reported this week at WS19.5 and WS22.5.

-Aframax

• In the Mediterranean, the market has eased significantly with rates for 80,000mt Ceyhan/Lavera diving 22.5 points to mid WS90s (a TCE of about $7.4k/day basis a round voyage).
• In Northern Europe, the market for 80,000mt Cross-North Sea fell back eight points to WS100 level ($5.6k/day TCE) while rates for 100,000mt Baltic/UK Continent fell 8.5 points to the low WS80s ($11.2k/day TCE).
• On the other side of the Atlantic rates for 70,000mt Caribbean/US Gulf have fallen a further five points to WS77 region (a TCE of about minus $600/day) while for 70,000mt US Gulf/UK Continent rates have remained steady at the WS75 mark.

-Clean

• Two consecutive short weeks saw momentum shift in charterers’ favour and in the 75,000mt Middle East Gulf/Japan trade, rates eased by around 4.5 points to WS126.25 region and it was a similar story in the LR1 market with rates softening 3 points to close to WS132.5.
• The 35,000mt AG/East Africa trade came under downward pressure and now sits at WS162.5 region having started the week in the high WS170s.
• For owners plying the 37,000 Cont/USAC trade, it has been a disappointing week with the market sliding from WS140 down to WS125 before a modest recovery to WS130.