Today, Thursday, January 16 2019, the Baltic Dry Index decreased by 41 points, reaching 1055 points.

Capesize The cape market took some time to get going with a weaker market throughout the day. Jan traded early on at $14300 down to $14000 pre-index. Feb trading down to $12000 and q1 down to $12900. Weaker c5 fixtures down at $5.80 reported and index tanked to $14069 (-939). Post index we saw Jan trade down to $13900, Feb to $11750 and Q1 down to $12750. This brought the back end down also with Q2 $13250 and Q3 $16250 respectively. With this, buyers stepping back on the deferred with ...

Newbuilding ordering activity has started to pick up pace of late, while S&P deals are also on the rise, with more and more owners looking to conclude business deals. In its latest weekly report, shipbroker Allied Shipbroking said that “despite the persisting pressure that is noted in the dry bulk freight market lately, activity in the newbuilding front remains at moderate levels, with owners foreseeing the stabilization of the rates in the following months. During the past week, 4 new orders were reported across different size segments, with the biggest ...

Anybody reading the commentary on China’s December trade figures would be left with the impression of an economy increasingly losing momentum amid a dispute with the United States. It was reasonable for analysts to zero in on the 4.4 percent drop in China’s December exports from a year earlier, a huge miss when a rise of 3 percent had been forecast. Imports also surprised on the downside, dropping 7.6 percent in December, the biggest decline since July 2016. The numbers do point to weakness in the world’s second-largest economy, and ...

Today, Tuesday, January 15 2019, the Baltic Dry Index decreased by 51 points, reaching 1096 points.

CAPESIZE Early news of force majeure being declared by Rio Tinto and a general lack of positivity in the cape market weighed heavily on sentiment in the morning session. Feb traded down to 12000 & Q1 12900 but despite there being very little volume, rates quickly stabilised on the run up to the index. The small drop on the indices did little to dampen rates any further and buyers did eventually return in the late afternoon which could have been attributed to more C3 activity although no firmer fixtures were ...

Coal is expected to become Australia’s most valuable export for the first time in nine years in fiscal 2018 ending June this year, as increasing concentration in the mining industry pushes up prices and exports to China and other countries in Asia rise. Iron ore prices, on the other hand, have continued to decline, dragged lower by falling Chinese demand. The shift in Australia’s resource exports also highlights its dependence on the state of the Chinese economy. Australia will export 67 billion Australian dollars ($47.8 billion) of coal in fiscal ...

China’s 2018 iron ore imports fell by 1 percent from the previous year, the first annual decline since 2010, according to data from the General Administration of Customs on Monday. Full-year iron ore imports fell to 1.064 billion tonnes in 2018 from an annual record of 1.075 billion tonnes in 2017, the data showed. The ore imports, though, still exceeded 1 billion tonnes for a third year running. Arrivals for iron ore shipments in December rose to 86.65 million tonnes, up from 86.25 million tonnes in November, official customs data ...

China imported 10.23 million mt of crude coal, including thermal coal, metallurgical coal and other coals, down 55% on year, and down 46.6% from November, preliminary figures from China General Administration of Customs, or China Customs, showed on Monday. In 2018, China imported a total of 281.23 million mt of crude coal, up 3.9% on year, China Customs figures showed. Meanwhile, China exported 310,000 mt of coal in December, down 55.7% on year and down 55% from November. In 2018, China exported a total of 4.934 million mt of coal, ...

Today, Monday, January 14 2019, the Baltic Dry Index decreased by 22 points, reaching 1147 points.

Demand for Russian wheat in Turkey is expected to strengthen over the coming weeks despite firmer due to good flour sales keep demand for wheat afloat. The “Continuous flour sales,” are giving flour millers in Turkey an added incentive to keep purchasing wheat even with high replacement and input costs, a source said. This in addition to a Trade Ministry regulation, which stipulates that any exported flour from Turkey must be produced from imported wheat. Russian wheat prices are currently surging due to low supply availability near ports, pushing any ...

Capesize Dashed hopes summed up the first full week of the New Year. A slow start followed by a busy 24 hours of improving rates and a firming FFA market fuelled positive sentiment, only to see both paper and physical sales slide the next day. West Australia to China rates briefly moved closer to the high $6.00s, but ended the week at $6.25, as a 2002-built vessel fixed at this rate from Dampier. The ship was re-let having fixed on timecharter at $9,000 daily basis Hong Kong delivery. The Australian ...

Exports of U.S. distillers’ dried grains to Thailand have stopped due to new fumigation requirements installed after beetles were discovered in a shipment last year, American traders said. Thai government officials said U.S. shipments required certificates showing they had been “properly fumigated.” Traders said sales had effectively been halted as the two governments negotiate which gas is best for the fumigation. Thailand in 2017 was the fourth-biggest overseas market for so-called DDGs, importing 738,413 tonnes of the high-protein feed used at poultry and livestock farms, USDA data showed. Osama El-Lissy, ...

The shipping industry is entering 2019 in a better state than the years before it. Reflecting on the state of the shipping industry after 2018, Intermodal said in its latest weekly report that “paraphrasing the words of a Chief economist in a latest report of the World Bank Group, the current state of the shipping market very much resembles that of a ship sailing, for the past decade, in shallow and tidy waters trying to avoid groundings. It was caught on a grounding two years ago, but is now freed ...

Recent dry weather conditions in several soybean planting areas in Brazil may cut volumes available for export in 2019, national grains exporters association ANEC said. “We already know the trend for the crop is lower than last season. Our export estimates can be revised down due to weather issues,” ANEC general manager Sergio Mendes said in an emailed statement. He said the ANEC projection currently remains at 73 million mt for 2019, unchanged from December and down from the record 83.6 million mt seen in 2018. Mendes added that data ...