Wednesday 25 July 2012

Baltic index down; capesize, panamax rates lower

Tue Jul 24, 2012
July 24 (Reuters)
- The Baltic Exchange's main sea freight index, tracking rates for ships carrying dry commodities, fell on Tuesday as rates for both capesize and panamax vessels softened.

The overall index, which reflects the daily freight market prices for capesize, panamax, supramax and handysize dry bulk transport vessels, was down 1.9 percent at 1,003 points. The index has lost about 42 percent this year.

"We continue to expect the oversupply of tonnage to keep dry bulk rates under pressure over the near-to-intermediate-term, with the high probability of near-term restructurings potentially keeping equities under pressure," Wells Fargo analyst Michael Webber said in a weekly note.

The capesize index dropped 14 points or 1.09 percent to 1,261 points.

Capesizes typically haul 150,000 tonne cargoes such as iron ore and coal, with iron ore shipments accounting for around a third of seaborne volumes on the larger capesizes. Average daily earnings for the vessels were down $164 at $5,159.

Though Chinese iron ore fixtures increased 5 percent week on week, an oversupply of iron ore tonnage led to lower spot rates for capesizes, Webber said.

Capesize rates have fallen about 81 percent this year.

The Baltic Exchange's panamax index fell 2.2 percent to 1,109 points, with average daily earnings for panamaxes, which typically transport 60,000-70,000 tonne cargoes of coal or grains, down $197 to $8,847.

Rates for supramax vessels were down $182 at $12,086 and those for handysizes were down $99 to $9,279.

(Reporting by Shruti Chaturvedi in Bangalore, editing by William Hardy)

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