Market Commentary 29th June 2020
PACIFIC
Monday has not managed to take the blues away today with very little activity or enquiries heard of in the Pacific route. IMR is still open with Aceh-Vizag stem and willing to pay $6-$6.15 for 5-10 July dates which equates to $7k psg Singapore and Owners asking for $8.5-9k currently.
South China hire rates are still above $6.5-7k on offer but Operators feel mkt is comfortable at mid $5k lvls and willing to punt at close to $5k DOP Hong Kong lvls for Indo-WCI.
This week – operators are not too bullish on the rates and traders are silently waiting for the tide o turn back towards the negative so as to cover the July requirements at lower freights as done in commodity side as well.
ECI-China Hearing drop of TC in ECI-China trades as well with operators feeling Owners have chopped of $1k on hire since last week and feeling a bit bearish this week unless flurry of cargoes are to be seen.
RICHARDS BAY
Richards Bay has also been very quiet with still stable signs showing as 1 ship reportedly been fixed at $13k + $300k BB lvls for Far-East. However, for End July dates, Operators are willing to pick cargoes at $11,800+180k BB lvls for Pakistan trade. 1 reason for this might be the spike in PG and WCI-China trade which would be enticing for Owners to pick the RBCT-PG/WCI biz at a flat/discounted levels and then receive premium rates upon their arrival at these sub-continent ports. Operators are keenly rating these stems which indicate good interest to book cargoes which traditionally are signs of bearishness in the forward market. However, this year has been full of surprises so will be very cautiously watching the trend in the coming 2-3 trading days which will determine the trend for Q3 market.
Indian Ocean
Overall it has been a very quiet start for the week post Chinese Dragon Boat festival.
No new cargoes seen in the market, both owners and charterers waiting for the first trading activity to happen which usually sets a bench mark for rest of the week.
Though RBCT/ WCI-PG range is not very active, understand Vietnamese buyers and Atlantic cargoes of last week still remain to be fixed out of RBCT.
Not much clarity on the market movement for today, owners seems to hold on their last week rates though and charterers bids have come up reducing the gap.
Would be an interesting week to watch the market as an operator but not on the owners shoes who still have their tonnages to be covered for spot & mid-July dates.