The Baltic Exchange’s main sea freight index, which tracks rates for capesize, panamax and supramax vessels, fell on Monday, on lower rates for capesize vessels. The Baltic index fell 13 points, or 0.9%, to 1,402. The capesize index fell 54 points, or 2.4%, to 2,207. Average daily earnings for capesizes, which typically transport 150,000-tonne cargoes such as iron ore and coal, slipped $445 to $18,304. Iron ore futures hit a four-week low on Monday, as China’s portside inventory piled up to its highest since February and worries about future demand ...

The impact of COVID-19 in the dry bulk market could be assymetrical in terms of its timing in demand and freight rates. In its latest weekly report, shipbroker Allied Shipbroking said that “a month or so ago, many were still holding out hope for something promising to emerge during the final quarter of the year. Given the good – at that time – momentum that was being accrued across the vast majority of dry bulk markets, many were converging towards a more bullish attitude, despite the concerning business environment noted ...

Iron ore futures hit a four-week low on Monday, as China’s portside inventory piled up to its highest since February and worries about future demand for the raw material in the world’s top steel producer weighed on sentiment. The most-traded iron ore contract with January 2021 expiry on China’s Dalian Commodity Exchange closed down 3.3% at 760.50 yuan ($113.72) a tonne. It dropped as much as 3.8% earlier in the session to its lowest level since Sept. 25. The steelmaking ingredient’s front-month November on the Singapore Exchange plunged as much ...

Seaborne metallurgical coal prices have fallen sharply since China moved to temporarily halt Australian coal imports in early October as the implied surplus weighing on the global market in the fourth quarter is priced in. Chinese steelmakers have been obliged to quickly seek alternative supply, and some are trying to resell their cargoes. However, the spot availability of alternative origins is low, forcing Chinese steelmakers to use more expensive domestic coking coals, eroding their profit margins in the process. Alternative seaborne origins such as Canada, the US, Mozambique, Russia and ...

China is expected to continue buying grains at a faster-than-expected pace in the coming months as the country looks to meet its internal demand and ensure stable domestic reserves in the backdrop of uncertain market factors like food supply scare and trade tensions, according to analysts. China’s accelerated purchase of grains in recent months have pushed up its import estimates for corn, wheat, soybeans, sorghum and barley, according to an analysis of data from market monitoring agencies. The increasing reliance on imports come in the midst of growing concerns around ...

India’s coal import rose 11.6 per cent to 19.04 million tonnes in September on account of a recovery in consumption by thermal power plants and other industries as also helped by competitive prices in international markets. The country imported 17.06 million tonnes (MT) of coal in September 2019, showed data available with mjunction services limited. mjunction — a joint venture between Tata Steel and SAIL — is a B2B e-commerce company and also publishes research reports on coal and steel verticals. “The steady recovery in consumption by thermal power plants ...

China is stocking up on grains, metals and other commodities, providing a boost to industrial bulk shipping companies as Beijing braces for a potential new wave of supply-chain disruptions from rising Covid-19 infections among the country’s Western trading partners. China is the world’s biggest commodity importer, making up roughly 40% of the dry-bulk shipping market, and its rebounding economy has been driving a surge in prices for industrial commodities, including copper, aluminum and cotton. With China’s overall imports up 13.2% in September from the same month last year, shipping executives ...

Capesize The tide turned positive on the Capesize market this week bringing with it a sense relief and optimism. It both stemmed the mounting losses of late and gave some hope for a year-end rally. Dropping to a recent low of $17,121, the market lifted mid-week to close the week at $18,749 on the Capesize 5TC. The cause of the turn around is not yet clear, but higher fixtures rates were heard predominately on the west Australia to China C5, which closed the week up 0.15 to $7.823, and the ...

The U.S. Department of Agriculture has projected a banner performance over the next year for domestic corn and soybean exports, and so far, sales have been living up to the hype. Those bookings have translated to a record shipment pace for soybeans, but corn has yet to turn out the drastically larger export volumes. The 2020-21 marketing year for U.S. corn and soybeans began on Sept. 1, but buyers had already booked a record number of cargoes prior to that date. Ever since, sales have continued at a very robust ...

China’s soybean imports in September consisted mostly of cheaper Brazilian beans purchased in earlier months when the South American beans were sold at an average discount of 10-20 cents/bushel to their US counterpart, market sources said. While the Brazilian soybeans accounted for 74% of total Chinese oilseed imports in September, a 51% year-on-year increase to 7.25 million mt, the US beans contributed a mere 12% at 1.17 million mt, compared with 1.73 million mt in the same period last year, China’s customs data showed Oct. 25. The Brazilian real had ...

China’s government is expected to issue more import quotas and buy millions of tonnes of additional corn in the new crop marketing year, three industry sources said, amid a surge in animal feed demand and tightening supplies. Under already approved quotas, Beijing has booked around 12 million tonnes of corn from the United States and around 5 million tonnes from elsewhere including Ukraine for the 2020/21 marketing year, according to a Singapore-based international trading source and two other people with knowledge of the deals. China, which needs about 280 million ...

Sudan has received the first batch of wheat of the UAE grant, amounting to 67,000 tonnes to be allocated to mills in Khartoum and other states, state news agency SUNA said on Sunday. Israel also sent wheat worth $5 million to Sudan, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu tweeted. Source: Reuters (Reporting by Nayera Abdallah and Dan Williams Writing by Ulf Laessing; editing by Andrew Heavens)

After years of drought, the Port of Brisbane is once again receiving train loads of grain from Queensland paddocks, which signals an end to eastern Australia’s reliance on wheat imports from Western Australia. Since 2017, almost five million tonnes of grain has been shipped from WA to the east coast, with most of it arriving in Queensland to feed cattle, pigs, and chickens — markets which would usually be filled with local grain. Graincorp Northern Supply Chain Manager, Josh Connell said this year was the first chance for most farmers ...

In what could only be deemed as a positive development for the dry bulk maritime industry, Brazil’s iron ore exports appear to be gradually edging higher, after some pretty turbulent period, dating back to the start of 2019. In its latest weekly report, shipbroker Banchero Costa said that “Brazil’s iron ore exports have been gradually but steadily recovering following a disastrous winter period of 2019/2020. In the first 9 months of 2020, Brazil exported 238.7 mln tonnes of iron ore by sea, according to vessel tracking data from Refinitiv. This ...

The Baltic Exchange’s main sea freight index, which tracks rates for capesize, panamax and supramax vessels, rose on Friday, buoyed by an uptick in demand for capesize and panamax vessels. The Baltic index rose 14 points, or 1%, to 1,415. However, the index registered a 4.2% weekly loss, marking its third straight weekly decline. The capesize index gained 26 points at 2,261, but registered a more than 6% weekly fall. Average daily earnings for capesizes, which typically transport 150,000-tonne cargoes such as iron ore and coal, gained $212 to $18,749. ...