A boost in dry bulk demand, mainly from China, would go a long way into alleviating fears of a new crash in the dry bulk market. In fact, signs over the first few months of the year had been encouraging. In a recent report, shipbroker Banchero Costa said that “iron ore trade remains remarkably resilient this year, at least in Asia, despite the global economic impact from COVID-19. In the first 4 months of 2020, Mainland China imported 342.4 mln tonnes of iron ore by sea, according to vessel tracking ...

India’s imports of coal collapsed to the weakest in at least five years in May, as the economic lockdown in the world’s second-biggest importer of the polluting fuel took its toll. Imports were estimated at 9.17 million tonnes in May, according to vessel-tracking and port data compiled by Refinitiv, the lowest result since Refinitiv started collating data in January 2015. While the numbers are still subject to revision, it’s clear that May’s imports will come nowhere close to the 14.64 million tonnes in April, or the 21.2 million tonnes in ...

Events in the past few months have darkened the outlook for many seaborne dry bulk commodity trades in 2020 and later. Uncertainty about future global trends, both in the near and longer term, has been greatly intensified by the economic recession resulting from the coronavirus pandemic. Yet grain and soya trade looks well placed to continue growing solidly. Attempts to predict commodity movements have become more hazardous. The sudden, exceptionally severe downturn in the world economy, caused by government measures needed to control the pandemic, is having devastating effects in ...

Inventories of seaborne iron ore at Chinese ports continued to trend lower last week, as arrivals from Australia and Brazil declined while demand remained robust despite escalated production curbs aimed at controlling air quality during China’s “two sessions.” SMM data showed that iron ore stocks across 35 Chinese ports decreased 1.07 million mt in the week ended May 29 to 99.39 million mt, some 15.46 million mt lower than a year ago. The stocks have fallen for seven consecutive weeks, refreshing three-year lows, as high operating rates at steel mills ...

Man looks toward pork in meat section of Costco during coronavirus pandemic in Webster, Texas China has asked its state-owned firms to halt purchases of soybeans and pork from the United States, two people familiar with the matter said, after Washington said it would eliminate special U.S. treatment for Hong Kong to punish Beijing. China could expand the order to include additional U.S. farm goods if Washington took further action, the people said. Source: Reuters (Reporting by Hallie Gu in Beijing and Keith Zhai in Singapore; Editing by Edmund Blair)

China’s imports of aluminium are about to hit their highest levels in a decade, traders and analysts said, as an arbitrage opportunity created by demand recovery after its coronavirus outbreak makes it cheaper to buy metal from outside the country. China, the world’s top producer of the metal used in everything from cars to cans, normally has little need to import primary aluminium, made from alumina rather than scrap. Imports for all of 2019 totalled just over 75,000 tonnes versus output of 35 million tonnes. This year, though, as demand ...

China’s coastal bulk freight market has seen a decrease in general demand in the week ending May 29, according to the Shanghai Shipping Exchange (SSE). The composite index for coastal bulk freight edged down 1.6 percent week on week to 1,055.6, the SSE said. The coal sub-index went down 3.6 percent to 1,060.84, and the sub-index for oil products rose 4 percent to 1,478.27. The SSE initiated the index in 2001 under the guidance of the Ministry of Transport to reflect the fluctuations of the Chinese coastal transport market. Source: ...

Development of the Simandou blocks in Guinea will not only increase the country’s iron ore exports but will also prompt Chinese importers to shift some iron ore imports away from Australia to Guinea, which will add to dry bulk shipping demand. Guinea has already become the world’s largest supplier of bauxite and is now striving to register its presence in the global iron ore market. In 2019, a consortium of SMB and Winning International won the tender to develop block 1 and block 2 of the Simandou project, one of ...

Capesize A sober end to the week, with the market seemingly ready for the weekend. After a steady week of rate declines a small flurry of Atlantic business – combined with a little activity in the Pacific – managed to end the week up a tick. While a bottom may have been found, there’s no bull flags as the Capesize 5TC posted up +141 to settle at a low $3369. While most global routes – both on time-charter and voyage – varied little from opening levels at the beginning of ...

The Board of Jinhui Shipping and Transportation Limited (the “Company”) is pleased to announce the unaudited condensed consolidated results of the Company and its subsidiaries (the “Group”) for the quarter ended 31 March 2020. In the first quarter of 2020, the very unexpected and unfortunate outbreak of the COVID-19 was regarded as posing moderate public health risk to start off with, but as the velocity at which the virus spread exceeded experts’ expectations, the World Health Organization (“WHO”) declared COVID-19 outbreak as pandemic in March 2020 as it has affected ...

In late April, Evaldo Fidelis, a 35-year-old tractor operator at Vale SA’s massive iron ore mine in northern Brazil, came down with a dry cough. Soon, he said, six others in his crew of about 40 workers fell ill with classic symptoms of COVID-19, the respiratory illness caused by the novel coronavirus. Fidelis, a labor organizer who tested positive for the virus 10 days later, is far from alone. An isolated area in Brazil’s Para state centered around three Vale-owned iron ore mines – S11D, Serra Norte and Serra Leste ...

Australia’s coal exporters are bracing for a slump in shipments to China, making it somewhat ironic that May is likely to be the strongest month in nearly two years for Chinese imports from Down Under. Traders are expecting that China’s coal imports may fall in coming months amid moves by Beijing to restrict cargoes to protect the domestic mining industry and prices. While the port restrictions are expected to apply to all coal exporters, including China’s major suppliers of Indonesia, Australia and Russia, it’s also possible that Australian cargoes may ...

One thing that has confusingly held true up to now was that, against all the trends of many other commodities and market, iron ore kept on rising. It has been the black sheep of the markets, standing there, teeth gritted, weathering the storm that had swept away many other markets. However, just as other markets seem to be turning a corner, iron ore has come to the end of its bullish run. Picture the scene. It’s last week. News of the increasing numbers of virus cases across the world tragically ...

Once upon a time, believe it or not, stock investors were obsessed with dry bulk shipping. A repeat of such seemingly Bizarro World behavior could be a long way off. Rates for Capesize bulkers (vessels with capacity of around 180,000 deadweight tons) fell yet again on Wednesday, to $3,796 per day, according to the Baltic Exchange’s 5TC index. The tentative bounce beginning in late April has long since fizzled. Futures markets currently put the full-year 2021 average rate at $11,900 per day, still below breakeven for many operators. The two ...

China may reduce its imports of agricultural products from the United States if Washington issues a severe response to Beijing’s push to impose national security laws on Hong Kong, three sources said. China has pressed ahead with national security legislation for Hong Kong, raising fears over the future of the financial hub. U.S. President Donald Trump has vowed a tough response, and will hold a news conference on China later on Friday. Sources said that if Trump announces tough sanctions on Beijing, that could derail the trade deal the two ...