Capesize freight rate reached another low due to bearish market sentiment in both the Pacific and Atlantic basins.
The Capesize 5 time charter average dived down further toward the $2,000 level on Wednesday, at $2,082, down $811 on-day.
The lengthy ballaster tonnage list remained hard for the market to digest, which prompt some shipowners to consider stop ballasting ships and instead just idle vessels to let rates recover.
Sub-$2,000 rates for Brazil to China route
Due to the oversupply, the freight rate was under $2,000 level per day for 90 days for the key Brazil-to-China route.
Despite the low range, it was heard that trading house, Trafigura had fixed a vessel to move iron ore from the Sudeste to Qingdao route during the first half June laycan.
Overall, the freight rate for a Capesize ship to move 170,000 mt of iron ore from Tubarao to Qingdao was assessed at $6.80/wmt on Wednesday, down 45 cents/wmt from Tuesday.
Bunker demand spikes in April, but VLSFO sales drop
VLSFO bunker prices continued to slide by $7.50 to $242 per tonne at the port of Singapore amid the volatile crude oil movement.
Brent crude prices had hovered back to the $ 30 per barrel, while the WTI saw slight gains to $26 per barrel, amid bearish market sentiment.
Despite the financial troubles to its top oil trader, Hin Leong, the bunker demand of Singapore rose by 10.8% month-on-month to 4.114 million tonne in April, according to the date from the country’s Maritime and Port Authority (MPA).
However, VLSFO failed to gain from the bunker uptick and saw its sales dropped by 5% on-month to 2.9 millon tonne in April, high sulfur fuel oil (HSFO) sale rose by 4.4% on-month to 771,200 mt.