On the 31st week of the year, we can track that freight rates are slightly growing in Azov-Black sea region. Thus, freight rate for 3000 MT of wheat from the port of Azov to Marmara has grown up to 19 USD per metric ton.
However, not all charterers and shippers can see the market situation improving. Most of them note that Turkish and Greek buyers are trying to get the cheapest wheat prices, because of the challenging economic situation. That’s why the cost-effectiveness of the contract can be achieved by the low freight rates. Moreover, not all of the Turkish and Arab buyers are ready to be involved in active negotiations until the beginning of the next week due to the religious holidays. So, by the end of the 32nd week, analytics forecast market growth.
As for deep sea European market, we can also observe some development. Handy and Panamax vessels are not ready to go far away to China, as it was a few months ago. Owners are willing to stay in Black/ Med sea region to participate in wheat shipments to Europe and Africa.
Moreover, volumes of coal shipment are increasing a little bit. Even last week, a few new coal tenders occurred on the market, and coal company’s sales department started selling products to North Africa, China and Europe.
On the other hand, Baltic region is still the least active region in terms of shipments. Owners can note a very low demand on their services, which leads to the drop of freight rates. Yet, this tendency is not applied to urea/mop/ fertilizers shipments.
In Caspian region on the 31st week freight rates have gone down a bit. Market players are trying to calculate how profitable will be the shipment from Russian rivers in upcoming season.
New export shipments of the harvest have begun from Saratov region, thus situation with wheat shipments in Caspian sea should become better in the nearest time.