Diana Shipping and RWE have struck period deals to lock up their bulkers at rates above current spot market levels.
The deals emerged on Friday as dry-bulk spot markets finished a mixed week, with capesizes rising from multi-year lows and panamaxes slumping.
Diana said on Friday that it signed a deal to charter out a kamsarmax bulker for at least 14 months.
The Greek bulker owner’s 81,500-dwt Astarte (built 2013) will earn $21,500 per day on the charter to Tongli Shipping, a Singapore-based bulker operator that will keep the vessel until at least 15 April of 2023.
The rate is somewhat lower than Clarksons’ improving estimate for a one-year charter of an 82,000-dwt kamsarmax, which rose to $24,375 per day on Friday from $23,750 a week earlier.
But the Diana charter is earning somewhat more than prevailing spot rates for the panamax sector, which show a growing gap with the period market.
The Baltic Exchange estimated average time charter rates across five key routes at just under $16,600 per day on Friday, which was 8.5% lower than a week earlier.
The Astarte charter came after a flurry of period contracts in the kamsarmax sector in recent days.
“With seemingly strong confidence for the rest of 2022, solid period interest appeared as the one bright spark this week,” Baltic Exchange analysts said Friday.
The Astarte contract, which is scheduled to start on Monday, could last until 15 June. Diana will pay a 5% commission on the deal.
$9.35m in revenue
The charter will bring in at least $9.35m in gross revenue for the New York-listed bulker owner.
The Astarte charter marks the growth of Diana’s relationship with Tongli, which has now hired three of Diana’s 33 bulkers.
In the capesize market, freight operator SwissMarine struck a deal to charter the 181,000-dwt KSL Sakura (built 2015) in a sublet from German energy giant RWE, which has the ship on contract from New York-listed Golden Ocean Group.
Over the course of the two-year deal, SwissMarine will pay a $4,000 premium over the Baltic Exchange’s 5TC, an index of spot rates on key capesize routes. The charter begins on 5 February.
SwissMarine will not be paying much for the vessel at first. The Baltic Exchange’s capesize 5TC spot rate average came in at $8,918 on Friday, which marked an improvement from the $7,390 per day logged a week earlier.
But capesize rates have only marginally improved from Wednesday’s nadir of $5,826 per day, the lowest level since June 2020, according to Baltic Exchange data.
