The capesize bulker sector continued falling on Tuesday amid January's rough weather, but futures suggested better days to come in the near future.

The capesize 5TC — the weighted average of spot rates across five benchmark routes — dropped 10.5% since Monday to $10,913 per day, according to Baltic Exchange data.

"I do expect such an environment to persist for the foreseeable future, but once we get past those tough months, the balance of the market favours higher rates," Breakwave Advisors founder John Kartsonas told TradeWinds.

"It is not only the futures that are optimistic for such an outcome, but also period deals remain well above current spot rates, signifying the optimism from owners and the caution from charterers for the rest of the year."

The forward freight agreement (FFA) rate for February contracts gained $204 per day on Tuesday to $14,043 per day, while March contracts came $17,695 per day after picking up by $675 per day.

But only one of the 5TC's underlying routes — the C10 transpacific leg that moves iron ore from Brazil to China — improved on Tuesday, gaining $846 per day to $8,500 per day.

"I don’t think there is a point of focusing on the individual routes, especially when you look at percentages, as the values are quite low and the percentage seems high," said Kartsonas, whose company runs a dry bulk exchange-traded fund.

"We are in January, and historically this is a weak period for capesizes as both demand and supply suffer for various reason, mainly weather."

Glencore fixed an unnamed capesize to move 170,000 tonnes of iron ore from western Africa to China at $20 per tonne. Loading is set to take place from 22 January to 31 January.

No rates were available for fixtures on benchmark routes on Tuesday.

Not enough optimism

The capesize market did show some optimism in the Pacific basin on Tuesday, but the Atlantic market ultimately sank the 5TC, said Nick Ristic, lead dry cargo analyst at Braemar ACM Shipbroking.

For example, the average spot rate for the C14 China-Brazil round voyage, which ships iron ore across the Atlantic basin, slid 5.1% on Tuesday to land at $7,877 per day.

"We have also started to see capes fixing panamax stems with the former weakening further today," he told TradeWinds.

Spot rates for smaller bulkers also continued their steady decline amid the bad weather, despite reports of Brazilian miner Vale reopening rain-stricken mines in Minas Gerais.

The panamax 5TC slid 4.4% on Tuesday to $20,011 per day.