Spot rates for capesize bulk carriers received a significant boost on Thursday after weeks of mediocrity.

The time-charter average rate for the Baltic Capesize Index was assessed $4,249 higher than Wednesday at $22,841 per day, equivalent to a boost of 23%.

Strength in the capesize market led to the Baltic Dry Index being assessed 179 points or 13% higher than Wednesday at 1,605 points.

The index is now at its highest level in about two months.

As well as from higher activity, the market has seen support from increased congestion in China this week, according to analysts.

A total of 119 vessels are waiting outside Chinese iron ore ports, an increase since last week, Clarksons Platou Securities said in a note on Thursday. The average waiting time has, however, decreased from six and a half days to five.

The noted added that 93 vessels are waiting outside Chinese coal ports, a decrease of 10 ships since last week. The average waiting time is 4.1 days, a steep drop from 12.8 days in the previous week.

Rising in the West

Spot rates in the Atlantic capesize market have seen particularly strong growth, even though reported fixtures in the basin have been few.

A huge $2.28 per tonne was added to the Baltic Exchange's freight-rate assessment for iron-ore trips from Brazil to China, which were assessed at $20.525 per tonne on Thursday.

Likewise, Baltic panellists added an extra $8,275 to the assessment for capesize trips from the European Continent/Mediterranean area to China/Japan, pricing them at $40,950 per day.

Over in the Pacific, major miners like Rio Tinto have been behind a steady stream of reported fixtures for Australian iron ore bound for China.

The highest reported rate for the run on Thursday was $8.20 per tonne, when an unnamed capesize was fixed to Oldendorff for loading dates from 13 October.

Baltic panellists assessed rates on the Western Australia to China benchmark at $8.809 per tonne on Thursday, $0.37 higher than on Wednesday.

Futures market

Forward freight agreement (FFA) brokers told TradeWinds they have seen a busy Thursday with a small sell-off seen later in the day for October and fourth-quarter contracts.

Capesize futures contracts for October jumped up by $1,000 this morning and later climbed to reach the $25,000-per-day mark.

The contract finally settled at $23,153 per day, which was $2,559 higher than on Wednesday.

FFAs for the fourth quarter saw a similar lift and reached around $22,000 per day during the day's trading, before falling slightly.

The contracts settled at $20,812 per day, which was $1,443 more than Wednesday's level.

"Just probably some early adopters of the bull run taking profit," one broker said of the slight sell-off seen towards the end of the day.

"I think this run up has crept up on many people. Paper has been climbing for a while and was getting a long way above the spot index, so something had to give and the physical popped up."