Supramax Bulker Earnings Jump to 10-Week High
SUPRAMAX bulker earnings have strengthened over the past week, mainly due to improved chartering activity in the Pacific region, which saw a rise in coal cargoes from Indonesia.
According to MANA, Braemar ACM’s weekly note said that the Pacific basin was full of enthusiasm with “rates continuing to improve, even with the modest rise of tonnage lists in both the Far East and Southeast Asia”.
The steady rise in freight rates throughout the week pushed the Baltic Supramax Index to 786 points on Tuesday, compared with 733 points a week earlier.
The weighted time charter average was assessed at $8,957 per day, up 7.2% from $8,358 per day in the week before and the highest since early May.
The index also rose on account of good flows of cargoes from the Black Sea, US Gulf and east coast south America, helping clear out open tonnage in the Atlantic basin, according to market reports.
Meanwhile, the tension between the Gulf Co-operation Council countries persists without a genuine resolution to the matter.
This continues to impact the raw material trade in the region, according to brokerage Gulf Maritime.
Around 25 deals were reported in the spot market in the past seven days, compared with 23 in the previous week, Clarksons data shows.
The dominant interests in the spot market appear to be for the Indonesian coal trade, where a couple of spot trades were noted including a 56,000 dwt vessel fixed for $8,700 per day with delivery Thailand; a 60,000 dwt ship fixed at $9,500 per day starting from Vietnam; and a 20-year-old handymax paid $9,000 per day for delivery in Singapore, Banchero Costa reported.
In the secondhand market, a 1999-built, 48,200 dwt vessel changed hand at $5.4m, while a 1981-built handymax was sold by a Canadian company at an undisclosed price, according to VesselsValue.