Capesize bulker owners are enjoying a stronger market, with rates up by one-quarter in the past week.
Average capesize rates hit $26,777 per day on Friday, the highest since early October, according to the Baltic Exchange.
Today’s rate of $26,220 per day has slipped slightly from the end of the week but is still up by more than 70% from the low of $15,332 per day at the beginning of November.
Braemar Research said: “The cape market has experienced significant gains.
“We witnessed charterers improve their bids to ensure schedules were filled in a timely fashion in both basins.
“There was mixed success overall, with some owners having waited too long to cover and ultimately having to swallow waiting where necessary. Trade volume has been steady throughout, though, and the overall sentiment is positive.”
Early week enthusiasm in the Pacific came from high activity levels on the C5 route from Australia to China, with miners securing fixtures at improving rates.
They peaked at $10.60 to $10.75 per tonne by week’s end, according to the Baltic.
Today, the C5 is at $11.23 per tonne, down marginally from Friday’s closing of $11.63 per tonne.
Going into last weekend, Braemar said the cargo list for the C5 route remained “exceptionally long”.
It added: “Unless we are bracing for another record-high week, it seems the nearby position also promises to be busy.”
Rates out of Brazil for China have also been gaining ground. The C3 Tubarao to Qingdao route is at $25.675 per tonne, compared with $20.485 per tonne on 1 November.
Braemar added: “After a couple of weeks spent testing $20, the C3 market underwent a tremendous rebound.
“The more pragmatic owners decided that the quickest way to move past the latest sluggish patch was to relent to the bids and go straight through to what promises to be a positive finish to the year.”
Vale has recently chartered a number of third-party vessels, according to Clarksons, improving sentiment in the Atlantic.
The company recorded its highest production quarter since the 2019 Brumadinho disaster, building 5.5m tonnes in stockpiles that it said would ship by year-end.
Jefferies also noted that cape rates are now above the 2024 average to date of $23,500 per day.
“The spot iron ore market has been more active in both the Australia and Brazil markets, while a previous dip in bauxite movements out of West Africa has been followed by higher cargo volumes recently,” it said.
BRS added: “Less ballasters were seen for early December dates with a lot of fresh cargo nominated to operators from Vale in Brazil and Winning in West Africa.
“This saw a push in the market, however, there remained quite a few ballasters for November dates which had to delay to December so this push may have a ceiling shortly.”
