Updated commentary on last week.

Catogory : Market Report

The driving force for rates this week was certainly the Black Sea market, with a consistent level of enquiry and delays in the Straits leading to a jump in rates, with 30 x ws 205 the going rate for much of week 5.

With this attracting much of the East Med tonnage, the list began to tighten and a variation started to be seen between East and West Med, with 30 x ws 165 the going rate ex East Med at the time of writing.

For the majority of the week, West Med enquiry was very slow, which left Owners either sitting prompt or deciding to ballast east towards the profits. At the time of writing, 30 x ws 157.5 is achievable ex West Med, showing the disparity in rates as one moves further east.

As we move into week 6, with weather on the horizon looking poor, it’s likely that these rates (especially in Black Sea/East Med) could be maintained.

A fairly uninspiring week has passed for the MRs plying their trade in the Mediterranean, with minimal East runs keeping tonnage turning over and a light dusting of transatlantic / WAF. With this in mind, it is no surprise to see these rates being set by the slightly busier UKCont market, as we see 37 x ws 130 for transatlantic and a predicted ws 140 for WAF.

Red Sea moves were seen in the $600k’s and Black Sea/Japan at $1.55 million. Moving forward we expect rates to be defined by UKCont once again, but for now more slow steaming ahead.