Capesize freight rates stabilized and took a breather, after recent rally with market talks of super cycle.
The Capesize 5 time charter average then slipped slightly by $36 day-on-day to $13,874 on Thursday, due to the market volatility.
The Baltic Dry Index (BDI) continued to rally on the strength of smaller vessel and gained slightly by 0.91% or 16 points to 1,779 readings.
Freight rates pause after recent rally
Despite cooling off rates, the shipping fundamentals remained strong with tight tonnage list in the Pacific basin, while shipping demand out of Brazil had shifted toward April laycan.
Hence, there was still good cargo list in the Pacific market, with all three major miners active in seeking vessels for the key western Australia to China route for H2 March laycan.
Moreover, ship-operators were also heard to be active in fixing coal shipments for the east Australian and Indonesian market.
Meanwhile, the Atlantic market also saw both offers and bids creeping down on thin market activities. As major miner, Vale was heard to focus on fixing vessels for April laycan, which resulted a cooldown of demand out of Brazil for the end-March loading window.
Bunker prices jump on extended oil production curb
Bunker prices gained on higher crude prices, as the price of VLSFO jumped by $6.50/mt to $501/mt in the port of Singapore.
Crude oil prices strengthened after OPEC+ stated that the members will maintain current levels of output, instead of market expectation of easing restrictions by around 500,000 barrels per day (bpd).
Moreover, Saudi Arabia will extend its output cut of 1 million bpd until further notices, while Russian oil production is granted more leeway with ramping of output by 130,000 bpd in April.