On the 16th week the freight market of Azov sea region keeps the previous week level and the freight rate for shipment of 3000 mts of wheat from Azov to Marmara sea ports remains on the USD 22 PMT level.
A lot of owners with RUS flag fleet prefer to look for cargoes from river ports due to higher freight rates. Many of them try to sign contracts for shipments from Azov sea region to Caspian and vice versa to maximize the benefits of river navigation.
Caspian region also demonstrates the stability on this week. The shipment of 3000 mts of corn from Astrakhan to Iranian north ports is on the level of USD 32 PMT. The demand for open tonnage from Volgograd, Tatyanka and Saratov ports is only increasing this week, but there are still a lot if shipments from Astrakhan and Makhachkala ports.
The important news of this week was new regulations of phytosanitary certificate issue. Now for all the export shipments sampling can be done only after loading completion. The waiting time of certificates readiness depends on the importing country. The longest period, more than 7 days, is for shipments in such countries as Iran, Israel and Egypt.
On the deep sea market there is a freight rates rise for Panamax and supramax vessels in the Baltic region due to the increase in the number of shipments. There is a high demand for tonnage to China, Korea and Vietnam direction as the number of coal shipments has risen significantly.
Due to the COVID-19, the curfew has been introduced in many ports, what complicates and slows down ports work in loading and unloading the vessel. The good news is the opening on April 18 of many European ports.