Coal news and updates

Dry Bulk, it is hard to maintain an optimistic view for next couple of months

The dry bulk owners looking for cover remained under pressure for size segments across the board. With Capes closing off the week as the biggest losers yet again and enquiry for the geared sizes still unable to catch up with the volumes of ballasters in key trading regions, sentiment took another hard hit last week, said Intermodal ship broker in its this Wednesday report.

According to Intermodal, the Greece based broker, it is hard to maintain an optimistic view for the next couple of months, as trade fundamentals in both basins are outlining further challenges ahead. On one hand grain cargoes in the Atlantic have failed to support the market so far, while in the pacific, coal trading is still weak overall, with India’s growing imports offsetting part of the Chinese void but doing so to an extent Insufficient to bring balance to the market there.

The broker further noted that, stranded by limited fresh business, rates for Capes succumbed to further pressure last week, with period numbers correcting further downwards as well, while the average rate for the segment moved below $8,000/day after almost five months, washing over the market with renewed fears of new historical lows this coming winter.

“ Any positive spillovers deriving by the boost in activity the Atlantic Panamax market saw during the week prior, were completely wiped off last week as the number of ballasters arriving in the ECSA grew disproportionally compared to enquiry in the region, while things in the Pacific it was a charterer’s market for yet another week” Intermodal said in its report on 11 Nov.

The Handymax/Supramax market was still getting decent numbers ex-USG and ECSA last week, albeit reported business was steadily below last dones.  Handy size rates kept looking for a floor, with the BHI closing off on Friday (6 Nov) 63 points above 201 lows.

Demolition Market
While commenting on demolition market, Intermodal says that, bring on the Capes Given that news from the freight market continue to exert great pressure on Dry Bulk owners it definitely comes as no surprise that two additional Capes were reported to have found their way to recycling yards last week.

The bad freight market for bulkers coupled with low demo prices, are definitely a bad combo for the creation of a strong demolition trend as the one we witnessed in the beginning of the year. Bulker owners of vintage tonnage, partly hoping for a market rebound and partly being deterred by low demo bids, are currently trying to weigh their options, a decision that might become a bit easier if the freight market continues to disappoints, which is definitely a scenario more possible than that of demo prices significantly recovering in the following months.

In terms of activity last week, Intermodal noted that, the breakers in Bangladesh and Pakistan continue to attract most of the demo candidates at the moment, while with prices in India moving further south last week, we don’t expect them to feel any pressure to increase their bids much more. Prices this week for wet tonnage were at around 145-330 $/ldt and dry units received about 125-310 $/ldt.

The highest price amongst recently reported deals, was that paid by Bangladeshi breakers for the Container vessel “MSC CHALLENGER” (37,915dwt-14,966ldt-blt 86), which received $336/ldt, says Intermodal.

source: http://coalspot.com