Ocean freight for dry commodities on major Asian export routes slipped on Tuesday as easing port congestion's and improved spot tonnage availability weighed on the market.
Period charter rates for modern Panamax tonnages booked on trans-Pacific voyages were valued at about $55,000, down 11.2 percent from levels seen earlier in the month, but the route was valued over Monday's Baltic Exchange settlement of near $53,000. "Improving port conditions in Australia has really given some relief to the market, and it will continue to pressure the market down," a Singapore based shipbroker said.
Vessel queues at Australia's largest coal export terminal fell to 50, the lowest since January, while waiting time remained at around 20 days. Seventy-nine vessels were queued at Newcastle in July due to tropical storms.
However, China and India's fierce appetite for natural resources like grain, iron ore steel and coal, continues to keep the market on a slight boil, shipbrokers and analysts said.
The Baltic Exchange's dry freight index, which measures the global strength of seaborne trade for dry commodities was settled at 7,277 points on Tuesday, about 0.6 percent off its record level. The Baltic Exchange's Panamax Index, was at about 7,160 points, about 158 points over levels seen in mid-August.
Overall demand for tonnage in the first-half of 2007 was at 1.16 billion tonnes, about 7.2 percent over the same period in 2006, UK based shipbroker said in its weekly analyst report. "Most of the growth this year was generated by steam coal, iron ore and steel trades whilst grain and other bulk trades (in aggregate) showed only marginal growth," Galbraith said it is report.
Galbraith said that despite significant fleet growth strong demand and tonnage availability restrictions caused by port congestion's helped mute steeper rate slides. It also anticipates that demand growth in the second-half of the year "is anticipated to progress similarly to the first-half but with the same countries - especially China - expected to show exceptional growth."