The capesize bulker market has clawed back some of the declines it had earlier in the week.
The capesize 5TC — a spot-rate average weighted across five key routes — jumped 25.2% in two days to reach $29,938 per day on Friday, according to Baltic Exchange data.
This end-of-the-week spike came after the 5TC dropped 20.1% since last Friday to land at $25,406 per day on Wednesday.
The route that saw the greatest volatility over the week was the China-Japan transpacific round voyage.
Its average spot rate dropped 29.5% by Wednesday to $23,596 per day before swinging back up to $31,562 per day on Friday.
"Fundamentals are said to have improved at the later end of the week, but whether they have enough impetus to break above the current upper range is uncertain," the Baltic Exchange said on Friday in its weekly wrap-up on the dry bulk market.
It said capesizes are getting fixed quite often to ship iron ore from Brazil and Asia during the second half of December, but the plummeting of the iron ore price to below $100 per tonne is causing uncertainty.
"While a lot of cargo is moved outside of spot markets on longer-term contracts, waning hunger from buyers may begin to take a toll in the coming months, yet capesizes are always anything but clear to forecast," it said.
The Baltic Exchange has yet to report any fixtures for Friday.
Average spot rates for the smaller bulkers fell throughout the week to varying degrees.
The panamax 5TC dropped 22.1% to $20,535 per day, while the supramax 10TC lost $180 over the week to come in at $24,603 per day.
The handysize 7TC slid 3.3% to land at $28,090 per day on Friday.
