The Baltic Exchange’s main sea freight index registered its biggest monthly percentage fall in three years, weighed by weaker demand across all vessel segments. The overall index, which factors in rates for capesize, panamax and supramax shipping vessels, inched 1 point higher at 681 on Tuesday. But the main index has lost 55% for the month. The capesize index lost 1 point at 532, its lowest in nearly five months. The index has fallen 76.5% for the month, the worst since August 2022. Average daily earnings for capesizes, which typically ...

Iron ore futures fell on Tuesday, with the Dalian benchmark price pulling back from the previous session’s contract high, as traders assessed demand in top steel producer China while also keeping an eye on regulatory risks. The steelmaking ingredient, however, was on track for a 2% monthly gain in the Dalian Commodity Exchange. It has risen 11% on the Singapore Exchange this month, in a rally driven by improved demand prospects after China dismantled strict COVID curbs. The so-called China reopening has also boosted spot iron prices, with the benchmark ...

Seaborne flows through the Black Sea grain corridor have averaged 102,051 mt/d over Jan. 1-28, 15% lower than December, an analysis of the UN’s Black Sea Grain Initiative Joint Coordination Centre data by S&P Global Commodity Insights found Jan. 30. “Unless JCC inspections speed up, flows will not be improved,” a chartering broker from Odesa said. “We will continue as is.” During the period Jan. 23-28, daily average grain flows eased to 101,295 mt/d, according to JCC data, 21% below the average during week 3. Freight rates for a trip ...

China is set to receive at least two cargoes of Australian coal in early February, according to traders and shiptracking data, the first since an unofficial ban on imports in place since 2020 was lifted earlier this month. Coal traders will be paying attention to how easily the shipments pass customs for signs that the informal ban is truly over and in the hopes of sending more Australian coal to China. Australian thermal coal for power generation and metallurgical coal for steelmaking are favoured by Chinese consumers for their high-quality. ...

The group said competition from Chinese buyers is already reducing local supplies and making corn used to feed poultry and pork an “overpriced” commodity. “Even with the sector being more prepared for negotiations and more attentive to its stocks and purchases, there is always competition from the international market,” Sindicarne said. “For 2023 the signs are worrying.” At Brazil’s southern port of Paranagua, for example, corn exports jumped to almost 570,000 tonnes through Jan. 29 driven by China. This corresponds to a 161% rise in volume compared with the whole ...

The Baltic Exchange’s main sea freight index snapped its nine-session losing streak on Tuesday, as rates for panamax and supramax vessels edged up. The overall index, which factors in rates for capesize, panamax and supramax shipping vessels, rose 4 points, or about 0.6%, to 680. The panamax index was up 6 points at 1,060, a 10-day high. Average daily earnings for panamaxes, which usually carry coal or grain cargoes of about 60,000 to 70,000 tonnes, rose by $56 to $9,543. Among smaller vessels, the supramax index (.BSIS) rose 8 points ...

China’s iron ore imports retreated by an additional 1% during 2022. In its latest weekly report, shipbroker Banchero Costa said that “2022 was a rather negative year for global iron ore trade, primarily due to weaker demand worldwide and supply issues in Brazil. In January-December 2022, global iron ore loadings declined by -2.3% y-o-y to 1,519.4 mln tonnes, excluding cabotage, from 1,554.4 mln t in 2021, according to vessels tracking data from Refinitiv. Volumes were almost at par with the 1,525.6 mln tonnes shipped in 2019, but below the 1,557.2 ...

The Supramax trans-Atlantic grain assessment Recalada-to-Bejaia experienced several losses during the third and fourth quarters of 2022 amid several draughts in Argentina that caused a cutback in grain cargoes, while spot rates have hit multiyear lows in January. Draughts in Argentina brought less business for Supramax vessels end-2022 Argentina, one of the world’s largest grain exporters and third-largest exporter of corn, suffered several draughts in the last two seasons amid a significant water deficit, which caused smaller crop yields. Grain volumes dry bulk vessels carried from Argentina-San Lorenzo port to ...

Asia’s seaborne thermal coal markets are losing heat, with both prices and volumes declining as winter demand passes and Europe’s energy crisis eases. Prices of the main traded grades for coal used in power plants dropped to their lowest in months last week, and to the weakest in a year in the case of one of the major Australian varieties. Australian coal at Newcastle Port with an energy value of 5,500 kilocalories per kg (kcal/kg), as assessed by commodity price reporting agency Argus, slipped to $129.87 a tonne in the ...

Dalian iron ore futures extended gains after a week-long Lunar New year holiday in China, climbing more than 3% to a contract high on Monday, on optimism around demand prospects for the world’s top steel producer. The most-traded May iron ore contract on China’s Dalian Commodity Exchange ended daytime trade 2% higher at 873.50 yuan ($129.40) a tonne, after earlier hitting a contract-high 890 yuan. On the Singapore Exchange, the steelmaking ingredient’s benchmark March contract was up 1.1% at $127.80 a tonne, as of 0714 GMT, easing from a session-high ...

Indonesia plans to produce 695 million tonnes of coal this year and sees exports of 518 million tonnes, Energy and Mineral Resources Minister Arifin Tasrif said on Monday. That would be higher than Indonesia’s 2022 coal production of 687 million tonnes and exports of 494 million, he said. Production last year was higher than the production target of 663 million tonnes despite an export ban at the start of the year that caused some miners to hold back output and heavy rain flow that disrupted activities. Arifin expects that coal ...

Vessel oversupply in the Atlantic Basin has pushed Panamax freight rates to multiyear lows in January, despite robust growth in ton-mile demand for inbound coal shipments in Rotterdam fueled by lingering security of supply concerns and European sanctions on Russian coal. Freight performance so far in 2023 appears to have little in common with the surging Atlantic dry bulk markets of the past two years, with the daily Panamax rates on key routes sliding to hire levels last seen in 2020. “There isn’t too much movement due to China stalling, ...

Capesize The Capesize timecharter average (5TC) lost more than 50% of its value since the middle of last week. The spot rates in both basins continued their descent throughout the week after the lunar New Year holidays. The 5TC closed the week at $4,433, which reached its lowest level in five months and lower by over $1,200 compared with the same period last year. Both the Brazil to Qingdao run and the west Australia to Qingdao run diminished in contrast to the end of January 2022, settling at $16.883 and ...

The world’s top thermal coal exporter shocked global markets a year ago by temporarily banning coal exports to protect domestic power producers, sending coal prices soaring and kicking off an historically volatile year for coal and other power fuels. But since then Indonesia has made a different mark on the global coal arena by setting a new record pace for shipments that if sustained puts it on course to be the first country to surpass half a billion tonnes of coal exports in a single year. With global power markets ...

The Baltic Exchange’s main sea freight index, tracking rates for ships carrying dry bulk commodities, marked its fourth consecutive weekly fall on Friday as capesize demand remained numb. The overall index, which factors in rates for capesize, panamax and supramax shipping vessels, was down one point to 676, levels last seen during June 2020. The index was down 11.4% for the week. The capesize index lost 15 points, or about 2.7%, at 534, a near five-month low. It was down 32% for the week, also a fourth consecutive weekly fall. ...