On the 45th week freight rates in Azov-Black sea region are keep increasing, but not as drastically as it was last week. For example, the freight rate for 3000 MT of wheat from Azov to Marmara owners are asking around 28 USD PMT. However, a lot of players on the market think, that there won’t be any leaps in freight prices in the future, as it was last week. Moreover, there are going to be a lot of cargoes, but traders are not forecasting more new sales contracts.
This week, there is also a very difficult situation in OPL Kavkaz, where there are a lot of line because of the storm alert.
In the Baltic sea we can see unstable situation. The freight rates given by owners are very different from each other. This can be explained by a lot of permanent contract as far as many spot shipments. Furthermore, a lot of owners are considering taking coal or scrap because of the bad weather in Baltic region.
On the deep sea market, there is an interesting situation this year. This week a few companies declared selling their vessels in order to renew their fleet or cover the loses. As for the freight rates, deep sea market is stably growing, because of the demand for handymax/supramax/ ultramax vessels, even though BDI has dropped a few positions.
As for the Black Sea region, it is noted an increase in activity on the grain shipments by handy class vessels, especially on Morocco, Egypt and Congo. Moreover, the grain giants continue to make shipments to the Persian Gulf and China, to these directions’ shipowners give indications. Therefore, most often these companies cover shipments with their own tonnage, as this reduces the cost of grain transportation.
In the Caspian region, the sum of cargo in ports of Astrakhan and Aktau increased this week, but most cargoes are fixing with Iranian flag vessels because Russian-flagged vessels cannot compete with prices of Iranian owners.
The navigation period is ending on the Volga and the shipowners are making the last voyages of the season, considering in which region they will leave their ships for the winter, depending on market conditions.
At the end of last week, a tender for the purchase of barley was held in Iran, which may affect the improvement of the general situation in the Caspian region and, possibly, new cargo will soon appear on the market.