Mon Apr 23, 2012
By NR Sethuraman
April 23 (Reuters) - The Baltic Exchange's main sea freight index, tracking rates for ships carrying dry commodities rose for a ninth straight session on Monday, as higher activity propped up rates for smaller vessels.
The overall index, that reflects the daily freight market prices for capesize, panamax, supramax and handysize dry bulk transport vessels rose 23 points or 2.16 percent to 1,090 points.
"We have a surge in activities for the smaller ship segment, leaving the capesizes alone out of any benefit as they still have a lot of issues with iron ore stockpiles in China and demand for stainless steel," said George Lazaridis of Intermodal Shipbrokers Co, Greece.
The Baltic's panamax index rose 4.37 percent, with average daily earnings up at $12,402, highs not seen since early January.
Lazaridis said panamax rates have got good momentum for the time being.
Average daily earnings for handysize and supramax ships were up at $8,540 and $10,920, respectively.
The supramax and handysize vessels were doing well, Lazaridis said.
"As soon as the activity (grain, coal and nickel ore) started to increase after the holidays, it tightened the tonnage list a lot more, leaving the shipowners to push for better rates."
The Baltic's capesize index fell 0.59 percent to 1,524 points due to fading iron ore and stainless steel demand in China.
The capesize segment stayed pressured by muted spot activity and charterers pulling out of the market in both the Pacific and Atlantic basins, RS Platou Markets analyst Frode Morkedal said in a note.
Average daily earnings for capesizes, which typically transport 150,000 tonne cargoes such as iron ore and coal, were down about 76 percent this year.
Growing ship supply has been outpacing commodity demand for some time now and is expected to cap dry bulk freight rate gains in the coming months.
The main index, which factors in the average daily earnings of capesize, panamax, supramax and handysize dry bulk transport vessels, has fallen about 37 percent this year.
(Reporting by NR Sethuraman in Bangalore; editing by Jason Neely)
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