August should see seasonal upswing of freight rates, alongside a pre-Q4 peak in demand into Western economies in the run up to the Christmas period. Driven by retail demand, and interestingly alongside similar seasonality you can find other ocean freight modes, including dry bulk, Q3 2023 has failed to inspire much in the way of confidence for prices. The big news is that of a watershed moment for container futures, with a large burst in trading demand from the Shanghai INE contract launched at the end of August. Large trading ...

The crude and clean tanker market in the North American region will see its trade shift, from 2024 onwards, as a result of the operation of the new Olmeca (former Dos Bocas) 340,000 b/d refinery in Mexico. In its latest weekly report, shipbroker Gibson said that “despite being a major crude exporter and home to significant refining capacity, Mexico has relied for many years on imports to meet its domestic fuel demand. Back in 2018, President Obrador came to power with the promise that he would end Mexico’s import reliance ...

Capesize The capesize market witnessed an eventful week. It began energetically in the Pacific, where all three major players actively participated, leading to a positive response to the C5 market. As the week progressed, the market experienced fluctuations in trading volumes, resulting in the market remaining relatively stable by the middle of the week. However, with the substantial cargo volume, owners started to exhibit resistance, injecting a sense of bullish sentiment into the market, and resulting in a further rise in rates. In contrast, the Atlantic market saw limited discussions ...

During July and the first half of August, the Pacific head haul trade saw continued sustained increases in spot rates, a trend that also impacted the key Asia to Europe trades from the beginning of August. Looking at underlying data this appeared to be driven by increased activity amongst the carriers in blanking sailings to better match capacity to demand. However, by the end of August, the trend began to reverse and spot rates levels were again seeping on these key trades. This is a concerning indication as we are ...

Australia is among the top three exporters of LNG globally, taking the “crown” during 2022. So far this year, the country has seen increased exports of 1.3%, placing the country in second place, ahead of Qatar, but behind the USA. In its latest weekly report, shipbroker Banchero Costa said that “global seaborne LNG trade has continued to surge last year, helped also by the events in Ukraine which forced Europe to diversify away from Russian pipeline gas. In the full 12 months of 2022, global shipments of LNG increased by ...

In the ever-evolving world of maritime finance, shipowners have experienced a sea change over the past two years. According to ship finance specialist oceanis’ Q3 2023 report, banks, debt funds, and lessors have “showered” shipowners with relatively inexpensive capital over the past 24 months. This injection of capital has brought about significant shifts and challenges that have left equity investors few and far between in both public and private markets. Examining the factors behind this transformation, oceanis noted: “The availability of finance has changed dramatically over the past half-decade. We ...

The Freightos Baltic Global index increased 16% month on month in August to $1,530/FEU, driven by early-month ex-Asia GRIs and backed by both improving volumes and stricter capacity management measures. This rate is 13% higher than in 2019 and 73% lower than a year ago. Transpacific spot rates, which began increasing in mid-July, climbed to about $1,900/FEU in the first weeks of August and closed the month at $2,029/FEU for a 33% monthly gain and a 58% increase compared to 2019. Rates to the East Coast increased 18% to $3,075/FEU, ...

Even though newbuilding activity has increased over the past couple of months, it remains below last year’s level. In its latest weekly report, shipbroker Allied Shipbroking said that “total contracting remains below last year’s pace as earnings have broadly receded from last year’s highs, and uncertainty surrounding future fueling continues to persist and discourage owners from investing. Container freight rates seem to be stabilizing for the time being, but the longer-term outlook presented by charter rates paints a less rosy picture and contracting as slowed considerably since the boom in ...

Faced with tough competition for greener fuels from other sectors, new 2030 maritime emission targets hang in the balance. According to the latest edition of DNV‘s Maritime Forecast to 2050 the shipping industry will find it challenging to secure enough supply of carbon-neutral fuels. The report emphasizes the need to consider all alternative approaches to reducing emissions and to take action now to secure future success. Increasing regulatory pressure to decarbonize, including stricter targets set by the International Maritime Organization (IMO) this July, means the shipping industry now needs to ...

The first week of September brings a downward movement in crude oil freight rates and a continued downward trend in VLCC tonne days demand growth. MEG -Rates for China have now fallen to their lowest levels since the beginning of this year, but there is still guarded optimism for a rebound in the third quarter of the year. It is interesting to see that the dependence of the Indian economy on Russian crude oil imports has been shown to be decreasing. At the end of the summer season, Russian crude ...

The shipping market had a mixed performance over the summer period. In its latest weekly report, shipbroker Xclusiv Shipbrokers said that “summer moved on and September is “ante portas” but things remain quite unchanged. The Chinese economy is still struggling to find her footsteps after the end of the zero Covid policy. China’s numbers concerning steel, iron ore, coal and soybean have improved compared to the same period last year, but this seems not enough to create the conditions for a dynamic upward trend in the dry market freight rates”. ...

As September began, freight rates continued to remain firm, as recorded at the end of the summer season. However, the Capesize segment remained under downward pressure. On the other hand, the Panamax and Handysize vessel freight rates showed an upturn. Despite this recent firmness, there are still uncertainties regarding the stability of the market, given the ongoing grain crisis and the gloomy economic outlook in China. When we look at the Panamax vessel size segment, we can observe that there is a rise in the number of ballasters heading towards ...

Maritime’s voyage to decarbonisation is underway, with shipping companies exploring technologies that harness wind, waves and even air bubbles to ensure their ships burn less fuel. Improved vessel design is making ships more efficient and safer for seafarers, and alternative fuels are being explored to help reduce the industry’s impact on climate change. However, there is another option to add to those already in play: navigational data. Modern mariners now rely on a sophisticated network of sensors, satellite systems and the latest technologies to gather data about their vessel’s journey. ...

The ship recycling market has been hampered by reduced activity for quite some time. However, shipping experts feel that the coming weeks could offer some respite. In its latest weekly report, shipbroker Clarkson Platou Hellas said that “ss the days grow shorter now that the first of September has arrived, the engaging thoughts are whether this is the month which will see more supply of recycling candidates come into the market. We continue to see some of the vintage, Far Eastern controlled, dry bulk units coming for sale or arriving ...

In our base case scenario, we expect global dry bulk cargo volume to grow between 1.5% and 2.5% in 2023 and between 1% and 2% in 2024. Average haul is expected to increase between 0.5% and 1.5% in 2023, driven by sanctions on Russian coal and higher iron ore and grain shipments from Brazil. In July, the IMF forecast the global economy to grow by 3% in both 2023 and 2024. This is a slight improvement over their previous forecast, but still well below the 3.7% average annual growth seen ...