A newbuilding capesize is reported to have locked into a four-year charter as period rates continued to follow the spot market downward.
The 180,000-dwt newbuilding scored a rate of $21,000 per day with an unnamed charterer, according to reports from the Baltic Exchange and Fearnleys.
Fearnleys, the Norwegian shipbroker, described the rate as “very unimpressive” for a Japanese-built ship of its “Cadillac” specifications.
The Baltic Exchange said in its daily bulker charter report said that the vessel in the deal is believed to be Navios Maritime Partners’ Navios Astra, which is due from Japan Marine United shipyard next week. The US-listed company could not be immediately reached for confirmation.
The charterer was not named.
The deal will be more lucrative than today’s spot rates, which sank to $5,442 per day on Wednesday.
But period rates have been following the spot market downward, with Fearnleys’ assessment of a one-year charter for a 180,000-dwt capesize coming at $13,000 per day this week.
That’s tied with the prior week for the lowest level since February, and it represents a 61.8% slump from the peak of $34,000 per day in May.
“Spot woes keep translating into negative forward views and consequent brutal paper and period level dives,” Fearnleys said Wednesday in its weekly report.
Rates for one-year charters have followed a similar trajectory for supramaxes and panamaxes.
On Monday, the Baltic Exchange reported that Pacific Basin Shipping’s 58,000-dwt Chiloe Island (built 2013) was locked into a one-year charter at $18,000 per day.
That’s better than Fearnley’s assessment of a $14,500 per day rate for a 12-month charter on a vessel of that size, but it is far below the $28,000 per day rate in May.
