Capesize freight rates dropped slightly on thin physical activities, amid a short trading week due to Brazilian public holiday.
The Capesize 5 time charter average then dipped by $150 day-on-day to $16,102 on Monday, reflecting a lacklustre cape paper start to the week.
The Baltic Dry Index (BDI) then dropped slightly by 0.95% or 13 points day-on-day to 1,349 from an overall oversupplied shipping market.
Typhoon threats to shipping routes
The market inactivity was linked to trade participants digesting the impacts of Typhoon Haishen on the shipping disruptions.
So far, the Typhoon Haishen had slashed passed southern Japan and moved toward South Korea, with local reports citing the cancellation of around 114 shipping routes.
Despite the disruption, there was still some healthy shipping demand among routes moving cargoes from western and eastern Australia, as well as Indonesia and Malaysia.
Rio Tinto was heard to fix a vessel for the key west Australia to China route for late Sep laycan at around $7/wmt, while FMG was heard to done a similar fixture as well at the range of $7.10-$7.20/wmt level.
Meanwhile, there was little shipping activity in the Atlantic market at the start of the week, due to the Brazilian holiday.
Bunker prices plunge on bearish sentiments
VLSFO prices plunged after earlier gains as it fell by $13.50/mt day-on-day to $323.50/mt at the port of Singapore, following weaker crude oil price movement.
Bearish market sentiments soon followed after the International Energy Agency (IEA) downgraded its oil demand forecast for the year by 140,000 barrels per day (bpd) for its latest report.
IEA quoted various bearish factors for the declining oil demand such as the lack of air travels, and market uncertainty over China’s economic growth and slow recovery of major economics from Covid-19.