South Africa’s monopoly port operator Transnet late Friday declared a force majeure at its Richards Bay Bulk Terminal, it said in a statement, following a fire that broke out at the port on Wednesday. Richards Bay Bulk Terminal, Africa’s largest coal export facility, is located off the Richards Bay port – one of seven commercial ports that Transnet operates along South Africa’s coastline. Transnet did not say whether or to what extent exports of commodities such as coal, steel and other minerals would be impacted. “The terminal is engaging with ...

French soft wheat shipments outside the European Union dropped in September following a strong August, Refinitiv data showed. Soft wheat exports to destinations outside the 27-country bloc totalled 695,400 tonnes in September, the third month of the 2021/22 season, an initial estimate based on Refinitiv loading data showed. China was the largest non-EU destination for French soft wheat last month, with an initial estimate of 185,200 tonnes, followed closely by Algeria with 184,000 tonnes. Wheat exports to China are set to accelerate further in October, scheduled loadings suggest. Algeria had ...

The Baltic Exchange’s dry bulk sea freight index declined on Friday to log its worst week since late January, dragged down by capesize rates. The overall index, which factors in rates for capesize, panamax, supramax and handysize vessels, fell 208 points, or 4.1%, to 4,854. The main index logged a weekly loss of 12.2%, its worst since the week ending Jan. 29. The capesize index fell 695 points, or 8.2%, to 7,767, its lowest since Sept. 27. The index recorded a weekly loss of 23.2%, also its worst week since ...

Dalian iron ore fell for a third straight session on Friday and marked its first weekly decline in a month, as a gloomy outlook for Chinese demand outweighed Rio Tinto’s shipment forecast cut for this year. The steelmaking ingredient’s most-active January contract on China’s Dalian Commodity Exchange DCIOcv1 ended daytime trading 1% lower at 723.50 yuan ($112.56) a tonne. It fell 2.9% from last week. November iron ore on the Singapore Exchange slipped 0.1% to $123.45 a tonne by 0708 GMT. Rio Tinto Group lowered its 2021 shipment forecast, putting ...

Rio Tinto Group on Friday reduced its 2021 iron ore shipments forecast, as a tighter labour market in Western Australia delayed the completion of a new greenfield mine at Gudai-Darri. “It has been another difficult quarter operationally and … we recognise the opportunity to raise our performance,” said chief executive officer Jakob Stausholm. The miner now expects 2021 Pilbara iron ore shipments at between 320 million tonnes (mt) and 325 mt, down from a previous range of 325 mt to 340 mt. The downgrade puts Rio on course to lose ...

Today, Friday, October 15 2021 , the Baltic Dry Index decreased by 208 points, reaching 4854 points.

The dry bulk market could be looking for at least two more quarters of solid performance, should the futures market prove to be correct. In its latest weekly report, shipbroker Intermodal said that “following up on our insight on May 2021, where we discussed about the Capesize market outlook for the second half of the year, we are pleased to see that dry bulk Q4 high seasonality has returned after at least 3 years of underperformance, driving also the Q4’21 and Q1’22 FFA curve to multi year highs. Back in ...

The Baltic Exchange’s dry bulk sea freight index fell for a fifth straight session to a two-week low on Thursday, as a dip in capesize rates overshadowed gains in other vessel segments. The overall index, which factors in rates for capesize, panamax, supramax and handysize vessels, fell by 144 points, or 2.8%, to 5,062. The capesize index fell 526 points, or 5.9%, to 8,462, its lowest since Sept. 28. Average daily earnings for capesizes, which transport 150,000-tonne cargoes such as iron ore and coal, fell $4,359 to $70,181. While the ...

After a slow start to the US soya bean export season, partly due to disruption from Hurricane Ida, US soya bean inspections ahead of exports have jumped to 1.6m tonnes in the week ending 7 October. This represents a 90.9% jump from the week before and is the highest level seen since the start of February 2021 which marked the end of the main export season of the 2020/2021 marketing year. US soya bean exports are heavily concentrated at just a few ports. While two of the biggest soya bean ...

Benchmark Dalian iron ore fell for a second consecutive session on Thursday as the outlook for Chinese demand darkened, with Beijing turning more aggressive than expected in imposing steel output controls in the first quarter of 2022. The government, seeking to curb steel production to ensure clean air, has asked mills in more cities in northern China to cut output from Nov. 15 to March 15. That weighed on sentiment in a market already edgy on fears of a wider fallout in China’s property sector after the crisis at China ...

Mongolia is planning to export at least 36 million tons of coal next year, authorities said on Wednesday. The plan was announced by Byadran Lkhagvasuren, governor of the country’s central bank, while introducing a draft resolution on basic guidelines for 2022 State Monetary Policy to lawmakers. “The majority of our country’s exports are mining products, about 40 percent of which are coal. We are planning to export at least 36 million tons of coal next year,” Lkhagvasuren said. He added that the target is quite a large one for the ...

Today, Thursday, October 14 2021 , the Baltic Dry Index decreased by 144 points, reaching 5062 points.

China’s soybean imports in September fell 30% from the same month the previous year, and hit the lowest for the month since 2014, customs data showed on Wednesday, as poor crush margins curbed demand. China, the world’s top buyer of soybeans, brought in 6.88 million tonnes of the oilseed in September, down from 9.79 million tonnes last year, General Administration of Customs data showed. “The figures were within market expectation,” said an industry source, who declined to be identified as she was not authorized to talk to the media. “Crush ...

The Baltic Exchange’s dry bulk sea freight index slipped to a two-week low on Wednesday as a decline in the larger capesize segment outweighed higher panamax and supramax vessel rates. The overall index, which factors in rates for capesize, panamax, supramax and handysize vessels, fell by 172 points, or 3.2%, to 5,206. The capesize index fell 602 points, or 6.3%, to 8,988, its lowest since Sept. 30. Average daily earnings for capesizes, which transport 150,000-tonne cargoes such as iron ore and coal, fell $4,995 to $74,540. Iron ore demand could ...

Demand for dry bulk tonnage has remained high in the S&P market. In its latest weekly report, shipbroker Allied Shipbroking said that “on the dry bulk side, interest for SnP transactions remained vivid for yet another week, with several units of different size classes changing hands. However, it is worth stating that a strong number of capes were reported as sold last week. The firm freight market and the robust sentiment amongst buyers led to a rise of deals in the segment as a whole. Given the persistent strong buying ...