WEEKLY SHIPPING MARKET REPORT WEEK 8 - 20 th February – to 24 th February 2012 - Legal Disclamer The information contained herein has been obtained by various sources. Although every effort has been made to ensure that this information is accurate, complete and up to date, Shiptrade Services S.A. does not accept any responsibility whatsoever for any loss or damage occasioned or claimed, upon reliance on the information, opinions and analysis contained in this report. Researched and compiled by: Shiptrade Services SA, Market Research on behalf of the Sale & Purchase, Dry Cargo Chartering and Tanker Chartering Departments. For any questions please contact: [email protected]Shiptrade Services SA Tel +30 210 4181814 [email protected]1st Floor, 110/112 Notara Street Fax +30 210 4181142 [email protected]185 35 Piraeus, Greece www.shiptrade.gr [email protected]
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WEEKLY SHIPPING
MARKET REPORT WEEK 8
- 20th February – to 24th February 2012 -
Legal Disclamer
The information contained herein has been obtained by various sources. Although every effort has been made to ensure that this information is accurate, complete and up to date, Shiptrade Services S.A. does not accept any responsibility whatsoever for any loss or damage occasioned or claimed, upon reliance on the information, opinions and analysis contained in this report.
Researched and compiled by: Shiptrade Services SA, Market Research on behalf of the Sale & Purchase, Dry Cargo Chartering and Tanker Chartering Departments. For any questions please contact: [email protected]
RBCT coal terminal expansion to 100 million tonne likely
Major South African coal producers that own shares in the Richards Bay Coal Terminal may invest to expand the terminal to handle up to 100 million tonnes of coal a year. Mr Mxolisi Mgojo head of Exxaro's coal unit said that coal miners had been surprised by the improved rate at which logistics group Transnet transported their coal via rail to the port in the second half of last year. While Transnet's volumes are still below the terminal's annual capacity of 91 million tonnes, the transport group has been quickly catching up. Mr Mgojo said that "The pressure is back on us as RBCT shareholders to say, beyond 91 million tonnes what can we do? We need to get to at least 100 million tonnes.” He said the expansion would depend on the timing of Transnet's upgrades on the coal export line. For years miners had blamed Transnet for failing to improve much-needed infrastructure, but the group has put money into new wagons and locomotives and plans to build a line via Swaziland, which would ease congestion on the main coal export line and raise capacity to close to 100 million tonnes. Exxaro, South Africa's second-largest coal producer and a big supplier to power utility Eskom, exported 4.9 million tonnes of coal last year and expects to ship 5 million in 2012. Mr Mgojo said there was more focus than ever on developing the Waterberg coal fields, seen as the next major coal hub as reserves in the Witbank area near depletion. This is after the government highlighted the project as one of its economic priorities along with the need to secure coal supplies for South African power plants, now supplying 85% of the electricity powering Africa's biggest economy. Exxaro also said it planned to more than double its capital expansion this year to ZAR 10.93 billion (USD 1.4 billion) as it seeks to diversify into other commodities such as iron ore. (Reuters)
Chinese copper concentrate imports in 2012 seen up by10pct
China's imports of copper concentrate are expected to rise by about 10% in 2012 on strong smelter demand, curbing end users' appetite for overseas purchases of the refined metal. Mr Yang Changhua senior analyst at state backed research firm Antaike said that concentrate imports would rise to an
average of about 580,000 tonnes per month this year compared to 531,000 tonnes per month in 2011. (Reuters)
Oil-Tanker Returns Slide for Third Day as Ship Surplus Persists
Returns for the largest oil tankers hauling Middle East crude to Asia fell for a third session as a surplus of ships persisted
and fuel prices rose. Daily income for very large crude carriers on the benchmark Saudi Arabia-to-Japan route slid 1.6 percent to $13,929, according to figures from the London-based Baltic Exchange today. That pared the gain from the start of the year to 13
percent. Each VLCC can hold 2 million barrels of oil. The number of ships available to load cargoes in the Persian Gulf over the next four weeks was unchanged, according to Kevin Sy, a Singapore-based freight-derivatives broker at Marex Spectron Group. Fuel (BUNKI380) prices, vessel owners’ main expense, are at the highest level since at least October 2008, figures collected by Bloomberg from 25 ports
worldwide show. “Despite more action at the end of the week, there were also more ships added to the 4-week list, hence the unchanged count,” Sy said in a report. There are 22 tankers available until
March 10 and 37 more until March 20, it showed. The exchange’s assessments of shipowners’ earnings don’t reflect speed cuts aimed at reducing fuel costs. Owners can curb those expenses, boosting returns, by slowing ships on return journeys after unloading cargoes. Fuel prices rose for
an eighth session in a row today to $728.34 a metric ton. Hire costs for VLCCs on the benchmark voyage gained 0.5 percent to 53.41 industry-standard Worldscale points, according to the exchange. That was the biggest advance
since Feb. 16, the data showed. Worldscale points are a percentage of a nominal rate, or flat rate, for more than 320,000 specific routes. Flat rates for every voyage, quoted in U.S. dollars a ton, are revised annually by the Worldscale Association in London to reflect
changing fuel costs, port tariffs and exchange rates. The Baltic Dirty Tanker Index, a broader measure of oil- shipping costs that includes vessels smaller than VLCCs,
declined 0.3 percent to 796, the lowest level since Feb. 14. (Bloomberg)
Shipping , Commodities & Financial News
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In Brief: Market had some positive signs on certain routes but in general the sentiment was not positive with the BDI increasing only one point to 718.
Capes: A better week for the capes with rates slightly rising The market moved upwards due to more cargo volume with the average of the four T/C Routes closing at USD 5,996 , a USD 413 increase. The T/A round remained at below USD 5,000 levels as there are still plenty of vessels available at the region while only the fronthaul trips showed some movement with rates rising up a bit. In the Pacific, Australian majors are still able to fix tonnage at USD 1-2.000 on t/c equivalent as owners have already been spot for many days waiting for some better rates and resisting fixing so low. If owners persist on holding this attitude the cheap tonnage will disappear pushing charterers to fix at higher levels reaching the USD 8.00 mark. On the period side rates remained at same levels around USD 12,500.
Panamax: The market had another week with declining rates Over supply of tonnage (there are approximately 2,5 Pmx vessels per cargo) has resulted in another slow week with ballasters making the situation even worse. The Transatlantic has been trading at USD 5,000 levels, declining about USD 2,000 than last week. Most spot vessels appeared at the Continent where the lack of cargoes pushed the rates downwards. The front haul was fixed at around USD 15,000, a USD 2,500 fall from last week. On the Pacific, the market showed some more positive sentiment with NOPAC rounds being fixed at better levels than last week around low USD 8,000 while Indonesian rounds were at stable levels of USD 7,500. Market saw some movement on short period with the average rates to conclude at USD 10.500.
Supramax: Another week with low rates but with some more fixtures
Atlantic was relatively stable with physical market keeping same levels than last week and indices slightly dropping. The Transatlantic round was being fixed at around USD 10,000 levels with ex USG trips holding up while Continent and Med were short of cargoes, even fertilizers and scrap, and very low on rates. The fronthaul trips ex USG were paying upper teens while ex ECSA low teens and bb. In the Pacific we saw another positive week mainly due to the increased volume of Indonesian nickel ore. Owners avoided the back haul trips since Atlantic is not in good mood and preferred to take short duration trips to SEASIA/CHINA range for low/mid teens while NOPAC round was fixed at USD 8,500. The most problematic area was West Coast of India with iron ore running low and few trips to china being done at USD 10,000. Owners were reluctant to fix their vessels on period for less than 5 digits levels which could not be met by charterers. Handysize: Once more the week followed a stable but low rate pattern In the Atlantic, over supply of tonnage remained and low cargo volume, as the ECSA season is not there yet, continued to generate low levels for the vessels competing. The negative sentiment kept on with the TA round ending up slightly better than last week at USD 5,000. Trips ex MED to USG remained at extremely low levels, even without hire on some occasions, while the front haul trips were paying around USD 12,500. In spite that fact most owners insisted to keep their vessels trading in Atlantic as the back haul trips remained at zero up to USD 2.000 paying levels. In the pacific we saw some movement mainly on the nickel ore side and the sulphur ex Iran to Far East. The round trip was at USD 4,000 and the sentiment is negative for the upcoming week as well. Vessels open at PG and India continued to suffer with most movement and somehow better rates to be seen for trips with sulphur ex Iran to China. At East Coast of India there was massacre with very few orders, many open vessels resulting to exceptionally low numbers. Period levels were around USD 9,000 with owners refraining from fixing.
Dry Bulk - Chartering
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Baltic Indices – Dry Market (*Friday’s closing values)