Average spot rates capesize and panamax bulkers gained finished Friday with a one-week gain, as positive sentiment reversed a downward trend.
The Baltic Exchange’s Capesize 5TC, which averages spot rates across five key routes, improved 26% over the past week to reach $24,776 per day on Friday.
The spot rate for C10 roundtrip route between China and Australia gained 28% over the same period to land at $22,418 per day on Friday.
The freight rate on the C5 route, covering the laden leg from Western Australia to Qingdao, China, posted a healthy 8% gain to $13.49 per tonne.
“It was turbulent seas this week as global markets buffeted the capesize sector,” Baltic Exchange analysts wrote in their weekly wrapup on dry bulk shipping.
“Miners were heard to be bidding up strongly amidst a tightening tonnage supply at the end of the week on West Australia to China C5.”
They said the capesize market may keep improving, but it is hard to know for certain because global markets remain unsettled.
“Yet coming into the second part of the year, history tells us cargo flows will be increasing while downside from $20,000 on the 5TC never seems to last too long under owner resistance,” the analysts wrote.
On Friday, Australian miner BHP took one capesize bulker and rival Rio Tinto hired two more at rates between $13.35 and $13.55 per tonne for journeys from Dampier in Western Australia to China, according to Baltic Exchange data.
That was somewhat higher than Rio Tinto paid hired two unnamed capesizes a week earlier on the same route at $12.25 and $12.45 per tonne.
The Panamax 5TC also made good gains over the week, rising 8.9% to $25,757 per day on Friday, the exchange’s data showed.
“The panamax market encountered a steady rise this week following recent weeks of falls,” the analysts said.
“A floor was seemingly found on Tuesday, primarily in the Atlantic. However, Asia soon followed suit with improved demand found in both basins.”
They noted that the Atlantic basin was mostly “grain centric” as panamaxes shipped grain from the Americas to Europe.
Meanwhile, Indonesian coal demand kept these ships in the Pacific basin “with plentiful activity”, they said.
“And, with an improving EC [east coast] South America market, the south was well supported.”
Among the deals, the 82,033-dwt Oceania Graeca (built 2019) was fixed at $25,000 per day to sail from China’s Port of Changjiangkou via East Coast Australia to India after loading from 20 to 22 June.
