Everything seems seasonally normal with our latest datasets. Trade has eased off in the summer months with the end of the southern hemisphere grain season and the energy markets are quieter before they prepare for the Northern hemisphere winter. Utilisation has been fairly flat in July with the Panamax falling harder due to grain stalling and the Capesizes are doing much better due to a stronger bauxite volumes from Guinea due to favourable weather conditions.
Cement volumes tend to do much better in summer months and as more economies trying to provide stimulus, we can see this playing out although compared to last year we can see things have dropped back overall. The final financial year push of Australian iron ore has meant shorter tonne miles of iron ore overall as less volumes have been pushed through the Brazillian leg.