Dry bulk market sustains rising momentum

The third consecutive rise of the Baltic Dry Index, even by only 12 points surely was enough to provide a ray of light in the market and have ship owners crossing their fingers that a slight recovery of the ailing dry bulk market is under way.

Wednesday’s session ended with the BDI up by another 12 points, again led by the capesize index, which saw big gains of 67 points, thus easily returning to above 1,000 levels and more specifically 1,058 points. Another positive turn was the first rise of the handysize index, which posted a marginal increase of two points, to a round 300 points. Also, both the Panamax and the Supramax Indexes managed to slow down their losses, at least compared to previous sessions. The BPI closed at 450 points, down by 16 points, while the BSI lost 12 points to end at 511 points. Of course, a large chunk of the market remains depressed and with the holidays closing in, not much activity should be expected. Reporting on the handy sector, Fearnleys noted that South America is quite, while quite many overage vessels are open in the Red Sea with not much cargoes proposed due to Aid holidays. On the Capesize front, which starred in these past few days’ rise of the Index, Fearnleys reports the time charter average almost doubled, to about $4,500. “In the light of more attractive commodity prices, Chinese ore importers suddenly reappeared, taking firstly a number of cargoes from India and then a little "rush" from Australia, both FOB and CNF, and all for early shipment. This resulted in the WA/China rate moving from usd 3.85 to usd 4.50 and the Pacific r/v from usd 1750 to usd 5000. Backhaul rates also edged upwards with Richards Bay/Rotterdam rising 50 cents to about usd 5.60. However, the Chinese still showed little interest in resuming imports from Brazil, and Atlantic activity and rates remained at a very low level. Nevertheless, Vale continued to put cargoes on the water, probably destined for stockpiling in China. Period activity was non-existent” Fearnleys said.
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