Very little period activity reported for capes as the market remains under pressure, however there is some optimism that the market might finally have hit rock bottom.

Routes from Brazil and Australia to China continued to fall as the recent disaster in Brazil continues to have a negative effect on the capesize market.

Capesize period rates have yet to rebound following the situation in Brazil and the market remains under pressure.

Cape period rates have yet to rebound and have remained low.

The current unresolved situation in Brazil has led to increased uncertainty for Capes and the period market has remained under pressure.

Unsurprisingly there has been very little period activity across the dry sector this week due to the lunar holidays in Asia with the Capes taking the biggest hit.

Seasonality combined with the tragic incident at the Vale mine in Brazil and cyclone season in NW Australia has put additional pressure on capsize period rates.

The Cape market has reported minimal period fixtures this week with one-year rates holding around $18,000/pdpr.

The Capesize period market has remained under pressure this week, rates are estimated at $18,000/pdpr for one- year in the Atlantic.

Unsurprisingly the capsize period market has been slow as is usually the case this time of year in the weeks running up to Chinese New Year.

The holiday season has resulted in a slow week across the board although the overall sentiment remains positive that the period market will pick-up once again next week as the market returns to work.

Although the cape period market witnessed a flurry of activity towards the end of last week, this week it has yet to build momentum.

Whilst the cape spot market has witnessed another week of recovery, period activity has been muted with few fixtures reported.

Improvements in the capesize market slowed this week not helped by the news that rail activity along the Saldanha iron ore export line has come to a halt following an incident.

A strong start to the week for the capesize market as the BCI made considerable gains, and as a result some time-charter business has been reported in Asia.