Sentiment has deteriorated visibly among bulker owners, charterers and financiers, but it's still upbeat enough for players to be predicting another good year.

Doric Shipbrokers, an Athens bulker specialist that has asked "friends and clients" about their views of the market since 2017, has seen them somewhat less bullish lately.

Just a quarter of the 80 respondents Doric polled between 3 and 14 January declared themselves outright "optimistic" about dry bulk's prospects over the next 12 months, down from 40% last year.

By contrast, the share of those describing themselves as "rather pessimistic" jumped from 3% to 15%.

"The recent downswing of time-charter rates, combined with the anticipation of softer global economic growth, painted the view of most of the respondents in less vivid colours," Doric said.

The Baltic Dry Index (BDI) dropped to a 10.5-month-low of 1,731 points on 17 January.

Sentiment, however, is still far from downbeat. The share of respondents describing themselves as "cautiously optimistic" remained broadly unchanged at 60%.

"In sharp contrast to Baltic indices' downward trend of late, market sentiment has remained relatively robust," Doric commented.

More than seven in 10 respondents estimated that the BDI will average a healthy level of between 2,000 and 3,000 points this year — below the 2,943 points the index averaged in 2021, but still above its level in any other year between 2011 and 2020.

A not inconsiderable 24% of respondents even believe that the best is yet to come and expressed the opinion that the BDI average will exceed 3,000 points this year.

Relative optimism extends even to capesizes. The Baltic Capesize Index dropped 49% year on year to 1,764 points on 17 January, but one-third of respondents believe that capesizes will outperform other bulker sectors in 2022.

Two-thirds of Doric's sample are Greek nationals. Almost half of the total sample are shipowners, 38% charterers or operators, 8% shipbrokers and 10% bankers or members of other financial institutions.

Doric's sample are a notoriously upbeat bunch. In none of the surveys the brokerage has published since 2017 has the share of outright pessimists exceeded 2%.

"Rather pessimistic" is the bleakest they usually go. The share of respondents in the relevant bearish box peaked in January 2020 at just 25%.

Optimistic bulker players, however, do indeed seem to put their money where their mouth is.

Sale-and-purchase activity in the secondhand market has slowed but has hardly ground to a halt amid falling freight rates this month.

Among the most recent deals reported by brokers, Greece's Tiara Navigation is said to have sold its oldest ship, the 53,500-dwt Sparrow (built 2005), to unknown buyers for $13.5m.

New Trade Ship Management, another Greek player, reportedly notched up its second asset play in five months, finding European buyers for the 34,400-dwt Longshore (built 2010) in a deal that fetched about $15.8m.

"Secondhand values are staying afloat just as corrections are crashing up against just about every segment's sides in the dry market," Doric said.