Steady chartering activity in recent weeks has cut the list of available capesize bulk carriers, which is helping keep rates firm.

Meanwhile, the futures market continues to go from strength to strength after another busy day where most contracts closed at higher levels than on Friday.

The Baltic Exchange assessed the weighted time charter average rate of its five major capesize benchmarks (5TC) at $33,760 per day on Monday, up by $1,078 since Friday.

Growth was seen on all of the Baltic's benchmark rate assessments, with the Brazil to China route for iron ore (C3) seeing the most notable increase.

A massive $1.205 was added to the Baltic's assessment of the voyage, which was estimated at $21.955 per tonne on Monday.

This was something of a return to form for rates on the Brazil-China route, which have faltered over the past two weeks following a period of rapid growth.

"As we noted last week, Atlantic Basin vessel supply is tightening due to strong activity in the Pacific markets, which is increasingly keeping shipowners from ballasting to the Brazilian market," analysts from Clarksons Platou Securities said in a note on Monday.

"Combined with increased movements in both the Brazil-China and Brazil-Europe routes, overall cape availability has become much tighter."

The Baltic's round-voyage from China to Brazil received a $1,823 boost on Monday and was assessed at $27,291 per day.

Reported fixtures

Monday's fixtures saw Golden Ocean's 182,500-dwt Golden Kathrine (built 2015) relet by pool operator Capesize Chartering Ltd to Mitsui OSK Lines of Japan for a round-trip from Manila via eastern Australia, fixed at a reported daily rate of $38,000.

The vessel was delivered to the charterer on 4 July and will redeliver in the Singapore or Japan range.

Only one iron ore voyage was reported on Monday, although brokers told TradeWinds the deal is still unconfirmed.

NYK of Japan reportedly fixed an unnamed capesize for an ore voyage from Acu in Brazil to Qingdao, China, at a rate of $22.75 per tonne.

Laytime begins on 1 August for the fixture, which includes a $210,000 disbursement for port costs at both ends of the voyage, a price that brokers said was in line with the going rate.

Futures market

Monday saw another busy day in the futures market with contracts up again across the board, even extending to the panamax segment.

A small sell-off was seen towards the close of business for capesizes, but panamaxes received a shot in the arm.

One freight forward agreement (FFA) broker likened the market to a party from which it is still too early to go home.

"We've waited so long for the party to start, there's no point getting the black bin bags out now, when we haven't even started the conga," he told TradeWinds.

During the course of Monday’s trading, 5TC FFAs for July traded at $31,000 per day and remained around that level for much of the day before closing slightly lower, according to market sources.

The contract closed on Monday at $30,844 daily, which is $1,025 more than on Friday.

Third-quarter (Q3) FFAs touched $26,000 daily during the day’s trading, but closed at $25,505 daily, up by $695 on the previous close.

There remains a considerable premium between Q3 contracts and those for the fourth quarter (Q4), which closed $319 higher than on Friday at $18,944 daily.

"The cape market continues to drive on, with the FFA still looking cheap on most parts of the curve if you are a believer," the FFA broker told TradeWinds.

"The last time capesize was over $30,000 per day — last year — the panamax got to over $15,000 [daily], so it seems whatever your thoughts on what is or isn't happening on the physical it still looks cheap," he explained.

Panamax 5TC contracts for August were trading in the high $13,000-per-day range on Monday before closing at $15,061 daily.

Meanwhile, Q3 contracts closed at $14,920 daily, up by $1,055 since Friday, and Q4 contracts finished at $13,361 daily, having advanced by $562 since the end of last week.