Category: Shipping

Learn the most recent news about shipping, tanker, bulker, container and gas carrier rates to ship at the most convenient time and at the cheapest possible price.

BLK Shipping – Learn About the Latest Shipping Rates

17 OCTOBER 2021

Welcome to BLK Shipping, our regular update from the shipping market. In this issue, we’ll be covering:

  • Wet Cargo
  • Dry Cargo
  • Containers
  • Gas

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Wet Cargo

The increasing price of crude oil has been driving the tankers’ charter rates up, although the availability of VLCCs meant a general slowdown for this segment.

VLCC – Very Large Crude Carriers saw a decline over the past week, primarily due to the oversupply of tonnage in the market. Outlook: Stable

Suezmax – strong rally Sith over 1800% increase WoW for suezmaxes, with a very strong performance, especially in the Mediterranean. Outlook: Positive

Aframax – afra rates more gained ground, with a general strengthening across most routes. Outlook: Positive

Dirty Products – Apart from the usual busy market in the Med and Black Sea, demand remained weak in all other regions, causing rates to soften. Outlook: Stable.

Clean Products – Charter rates weakened across the board with some routes losing over 50% WoW. The MR market remained relatively oversupplied, and the lack of available cargoes did the rest to cause charter rates to slip by an average of 10% Outlook: Negative

MR – weakening demand did not support the MR rates, which, coupled with the oversupply of carrying capacity in the market, caused rates to fall across the board. Outlook: Negative

LR1 – demand for log-range tankers fell in the last few weeks and continues on a downward trend. Outlook: Negative

LR2 – LR2 tankers weakened approx. 20% WoW but, on average, remain still strong compared to this summer. Outlook: Stable

Handy – Handy earnings weakened too, returning below $3500/day and losing all the ground gained in September Outlook: Stable

Dirty Panamax – Rates softened on most routes, bringing Panamax rates down 22% compared to last month. Outlook: Negative

Dry Cargo

Strong performance for the bulkers on most routes and across all segments, with rates at their highest levels in over 10 years.

Capesize – Capes grew up to 30% in the last week, averaging nearly $73k/day and rates climbing sharply to unchartered heights. Outlook: Positive

Panamax  – Still another good week for the panamaxes, although slightly in decline on the Atlantic and on the routes Indonesia to China. Outlook: Positive

Supramax – Supramaxes lost ground in recent days, after climbing steadily over the course of 2021. The second half of September  saw relatively steady rates, settling on an average of $30k/day Outlook: Stable

Handysize – Handy market still performing very well. After a strong July-August rally, a slow-down in September now it settled on $36k+/day with short voyages routes fetching over $40k/day. Outlook: Stable

Container

Container rates finally found some market resistance, with Neo-panamaxes vessels finding difficult to push much above the $145k/day mark.

Backlogs in major ports are gravely disrupting supply chains, with queues of over 70 container vessels at Long Beach and other major ports in the US, Europe and China.

We are now seeing, as predicted, a decrease in smaller-batches shipments westbound from Asia to Europe, accompanied by a subsequent easing of the TEU rates which now came down on the high $8000s mark.

Outlook: Stable

Gas

Rates for Gas Carriers rallied, driven by the strong demand for gas worldwide and the surge in prices across Europe and North America.

Pressurized and semi-pressurized vessel rates remained constant, whilst the biggest winners appeared to be LNG carriers, with rates now nearing the $85k/day for 160000 m3 vessels.

Outlook: Positive

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Did you miss our previous shipping article? Read it now.

BLK Shipping – Shipping Rates Updates

14 SEPTEMBER 2021

Welcome to BLK Shipping, our regular update from the shipping market. In this issue, we’ll be covering:

  • Wet Cargo
  • Dry Cargo
  • Containers
  • Gas

Subscribe to our newsletter to stay up-to-date with our Shipping Weekly and follow us on Facebook and LinkedIn to never miss an update.

Wet Cargo

The increasing price of crude oil has been driving the tankers’ charter rates up throughout July, although this has now slowed down and we are seeing a further downward trend in rates.

VLCC – Very Large Crude Carriers remained pretty much stable. Although we’re still unbelievably far from 2019 levels, we can now see positive signs of pick-up. Outlook: Stable

Suezmax – rates remained still, apart for a few routes where we saw a near 100% growth. As the oil price stabilises, we expect that the vessel charter rates will go with it. Outlook: Stable

Aframax – afra rates more lost ground, with a general weakening across most routes. Outlook: Stable

Dirty Products – Relatively busy in the Mediterranean, whilst supply and demand remaining weak in all other regions. Outlook: Stable.

Clean Products – Charter rates weakened across the board with some routes losing over 70% WoW.. Outlook: Stable 

MR – uptake in demand did not have the expected positive effects on MR rates, owing to the oversupply of carrying capacity in the market. Outlook: Stable

LR1 – demand for log-range tankers fell in the last few weeks. Outlook: Stable

LR2 – Good rally for LR2 tankers, up to 20% surge in a week. Outlook: Positive

Handy – Handy earnings bounced back up above $7000/day and it looks like the beginning of a positive performance. Outlook: Stable

Dirty Panamax – Rates continued softening very slightly on all routes, with a general 1% – 5% drop since last week. Outlook: Stable

Dry Cargo

Slow-down on most routes and across all segments, although bulkers remain pretty strong compared to 2019 and 2020 performance. 

Capesize – Capes declined between 5 to 20%, having broken through the $40k/day for the first time in years and now travelling on $41k+/day for scrubber-fitted vessels. Outlook: Stable

Panamax  – Still another good week for the panamaxes, although slightly in decline compared to the last week of August. Outlook: Stable

Supramax – Supramaxes lost ground in recent days, after climbing steadily over the course of 2021. The second half of August and early September  saw a reduction of 4-7% to settle on an average of $35k/day Outlook: Stable

Handysize – the biggest fluctuations happened within the Handy market. Still high after a strong July-August rally, now it fell slightly to $32k+/day mark. Outlook: Stable

Container

Container rates seem unstoppable, with 4400 TEU vessels now nearing the $100k/day mark themselves. Neo-panamax vessels are now close to the $145k/day mark, with a significant impact on the economy of most western countries coming out of the pandemic.

On the raw materials side, however, and especially in chemical commodities, the high freight rates (now looking upwards of $20,000 per TEU on the route China – Europe) now impact prices of goods to the extent that it is equivalent or cheaper to source from European suppliers.

We expect to see a continual decrease in smaller-batches shipments westbound from Asia to Europe, hopefully accompanied by a subsequent easing of the TEU rates towards the end of the year.

Outlook: Positive

Gas

Rates for Gas Carriers remained declined slightly, with the biggest hit suffered by for large carriers 145,000 m3 and above. Pressurized and semi-pressurized vessel rates remained constant.

This was expected as plenty of tonnage was tied-up in dock for ballast water treatment systems installation and is now slowly coming back into the market, increasing overall supply. Outlook: Stable

To learn more about how we can support your business shipping as cheaply and environmentally-friendly as possible, visit us at BLK. Subscribe to our newsletter to stay up-to-date with our weekly shipping updates.