Asian freight rates seen lower

Asian shipping rates for dry bulk cargoes are steady to slightly lower this week compared to last week after many traders were sidelined due to the long Easter holiday weekend, Asian shipping sources said on Tuesday. Shipping rates were expected to soften this week in the absence of supportive factors. "The market is quite slow," a Seoul-based broker said. "There appears to be no reason for the market to climb further as ship supplies rose steadily during the Easter holiday," he said.
Panamax dry bulk rates for the benchmark US Gulf-Japan route were indicated on Tuesday at about $62 per tonne on a spot basis, still in a range of $62-$64 seen last week.
A Tokyo-based broker said the market appeared to be devoid of any immediate factors that might lift it.
Current freight rates are low compared to a year earlier when panamax rates for the benchmark route jumped to record highs of about $75-$80 on booming Chinese demand for grains and minerals.
The view that Chinese demand will remain firm continues to underpin rates, however, keeping them well above the levels of about $30 seen around this time in 2003, then a seven-year high.
Some Asian traders said grain shipments from South America were moving at a slower pace than in a typical year, a factor that was helping to keep the market dull.
"It's true that there hasn't been much movement in (South American grain shipments) compared to the usual year," a Japanese broker said.
Soy exports from Brazil, the world's No 2 supplier after the United States, usually begin heading out to markets across the world in large quantities from March.
However, Brazilian soybean registrations for export in 2005/06 (February-January) are 62 percent below last year's levels, Brazil's Vegetable Oils Industry Association said last week.
By March 15, 5.50 million tonnes of soybeans had been registered for export during the current commercial year, against 11.74 million a year ago.
Soybean and product export commitments, which must be registered with the government's foreign trade office, give an indication of the pace of exports although they do not necessarily represent actual shipments.
In the period market, time-charter rates for the benchmark US Gulf to Japan route were quoted at $41,000-$43,000 a day plus $750,000 ballast bonus (BB) compared with $44,000-$45,000 a week earlier.
The rate for the Pacific market was about $36,000-$39,000 a day against $40,000 last week.
The rate for the Europe to East Asia route, however, rose slightly to $46,000 a day, edging up from around $44,000-$45,000 last week.