Project Description
It’s the collective minor bulks that have made a difference to the market during the 3rd quarter. The northern hemisphere grain season looks to be stronger with a 4% YoY growth in the 3rd quarter. The 4th quarter is looking like a 15% growth compared to last year so should provide support for Panamaxes. The European and Russian harvests look like they have done well but the question is how much will be exported and to where.
The bauxite, steel and fertilisers have together made a collective gain when compared to this time last year, all in double digit growth. These types of cargoes benefit across all the vessel sizes but over the past few months the collective utilisation has been falling slightly across all vessel types.
The main reason for this is weaker iron ore and coal demand than it has been in previous years which has taken the intensity off the market.