Supramax and ultramax bulker rates for lifting cargoes along the US Gulf Coast are rebounding thanks to lower vessel availability and growing coal exports, despite slumping spot market earnings in other Atlantic markets and beyond.
Baltic Exchange data shows that the rate for a journey from the region to Europe on a 58,200-dwt supramax could fetch nearly $29,600 per day on Thursday.
That represents a 29% increase since rates on the route reached a nadir of just below $22,900 per day on 28 June.
It is well below the peak of nearly $49,200 per day reached in mid-May, but it still represents a march in the opposite direction compared to the global supramax market, where average rates hit a five-month low of $22,500 per day on Thursday.
Baltic Exchange analysts also said a 58,000-dwt supramax was believed to have been fixed for a voyage from the Mississippi River to Turkey at $30,500 per day on Thursday.
Only upside in the Atlantic
“The US Gulf has been the only market in the Atlantic that is seeing an upside, mainly attributed to a decreased tonnage list and more coal cargo, particularly out of US East Coast,” said Braemar Shipping Services on Thursday.
The UK-based shipbroker said in its weekly shipbroker report that at the start of this week, a prompt ultramax bulker could fetch a rate in the high $20,000s per day for a trip to continental Europe.
That reached $32,000 per day by Thursday, for an eco vessel in the region of Louisiana’s Southwest Pass, near the mouth of the Mississippi River.
Voyages from the US Gulf Coast to Asia are also seeing higher rates.
Baltic Exchange data shows that the rate for a journey from Southwest Pass to Shanghai or Tokyo Bay on a 58,200-dwt supramax was worth nearly $27,500 per day on Thursday.
That’s up from a low of $24,800 at the end of last month, though mid-May’s rate of $42,100 per day is certain to have been more exciting for supramax owners.
Elsewhere in the Atlantic, activity was quieter. Braemar said expected scrap cargoes on Europe’s Atlantic coast failed to materialise this week, sending empty ships into the Mediterranean to seek clinker cargoes.
“As it stands, we don’t expect the market to pick up unless more scrap enters the market,” the broker said of the Continent market, a reference to the Atlantic coast from Hamburg to Bordeaux.
“From the Med, things are less bleak. There was a relatively healthy amount of cargo for the second half of July. But with a long tonnage list, rates did not improve.”
