16 JULY 2021
Welcome to BLK Shipping Weekly, our Shipping Rates Updates. In this issue, we’ll be covering:
- Wet Cargo
- Dry Cargo
- Containers
- Gas
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Curious of how the shipping rates evolved? Check out our previous article.
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 stabilisation of the tanker 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 – July continued to be busy in the Mediterranean, whilst remained weak in the US Gulf. Outlook: Stable.
Clean Products – Charter rates strengthened across the board primarily driven by the increase of fuel prices and re-opening of most countries in Europe and North America. Outlook: Positive
MR – uptake in demand did not have the expected positive effects on MR rates, owing to the oversupply of carrying capacity in the market. Not huge gains for MRs although a general positive feeling in the market. Outlook: Stable
LR1 – demand for log-range tankers grew significantly. Further climb looks likely as demand for refined products on each side of the Atlantic grows. Outlook: Positive
LR2 – Strong rally for LR2 tankers, up to 160% surge in a week. Outlook: Positive
Handy – Handy earnings slipped below $3000/day as the larger size vessels rallied. 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, with the exception of handy bulkers.
Capesize – Capes declined between 9 to 15%, having broken through the $30k/day for the first time in years and now finding resistance to a further growth they are now back in the $23k region. Outlook: Stable
Panamax – slight decrease in demand impacted negatively the charter rates, with an average reduction of 10%. Hold availability shortage played a major role, in off-setting a larger fall, with average rates just below $30k. Outlook: Stable
Supramax – Supramaxes lost ground in recent days, after climbing steadily over the course of 2021. The second half of July saw a reduction of 4-7% to settle on an average of $26k/day Outlook: Stable
Handysize – rates continued their upward trend breaking past the $30k/day mark. Outlook: Positive
Container
Container rates did not slow down in July with further increases up to 75% past $100k/day mark for Neo-panamax vessels. As container liners keep stashing cash on the back of the strongest year on record, we are seeing the newbuilding order book starting to fill-up for the year ahead.
We are now seeing more ship owners ordering new tonnage, predominantly ultra-large carriers, LNG fuelled like CMA CGM or methanol-propelled, like Maersk.
More, new carrying capacity is set to enter the market, which should contribute to the softening of the rates. The entrance in service of these vessels is, however, still many months away and demand for containers still looks strong.
On the raw materials side, however, and especially in chemical commodities, the high freight rates (now looking upwards of $18,000 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 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
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