Eagle Bulk Shipping's Gary Vogel is still upbeat on the market for smaller dry bulk vessels, despite the troubles fallen upon the capesize sector since the late January Vale dam disaster.

The chief executive says rates for his company's ultramaxes and supramaxes have actually rebounded to around $9,000 per day in recent months.

Capes, meanwhile, are fetching around $4,400 per day, down from $13,288 since the Brumadinho tailing dam break forced the Brazilian iron ore giant to close 50 tailing dams and reduce output by 40 million tonnes.

"We don't think there's much contagion across the sectors," the Vogel said Thursday from his office while hosting the company's annual open house during CMA Shipping 2019.

"We remain constructive, especially as we look toward IMO 2020 and the setup around that with ships being taken out of service."

Vogel said Eagle's plans to install 34 scrubbers on its fleet by 2020 is on schedule, allowing it to take advantage of an expected initial wide cost spread between high-sulphur and low-sulphur fuel oils.

The company owns 30 supramaxes and 16 ultramaxes.

The timely installation before 2020 will also eliminate the need to have ships run on low-sulphur fuel oil and then high-sulphur fuel oil once the kits are installed, he said.

"It's still early days but we're in the midst of it and it's going really well," he said.