Shipping Markets: Dry Cargo Market “Highlights” - Week 45 (05/11/2010 - 12/11/2010)

Once again the week was “saved” by the Panamaxes. What could have been an all red and negative week was marginally salvaged by the BPI that closed the week with only a small gain having lost dynamics after midweek of week 45 went by. For this coming week the BDI recorded its 12th consecutive drop, and it closed the week just like week44 with a -7.3% loss. Capes are still toneless with China further reducing the quantities of Iron/Ore imported and the charter market still showing some unfortunate clear signs of lack of prompt and available cargoes.

Meanwhile, the sluggish performance so far of the Dry Bulk Index for nearly 4-5 weeks, has been shrugged off as coal shipments have been drastically increasing in the latter half of 2010 as China is preparing for a colder than normal winter. If we didn’t have these boosts of coal, we might have been talking about a seriously negatively affected dry bulk market, and here are some positive news coming from Xu Xu (Xu “squared” it could well be!!), the chairman of the China Chamber of Commerce of Metals, who expects that demand is expected to pick up as he announced that China's iron ore imports are expected to rise for the rest of the year as steel mills embark on a period of restocking -- in September we saw an 18 percent sequential rise in China's iron ore imports.

Read the full Dry Bulk Market Highlights - Week 45 (05/11/2010 - 12/11/2010)!

Best Regards,
Theo Scholiadis - S&P Broker