Wednesday, December 17, 2008
An Early Sign? Chinese Shipping Revives
Wednesday, 17 December 2008
A revival in Chinese demand for iron ore and coal is causing some shipping rates to soar, pushing certain average charter prices up almost threefold. The move enables shipowners to charge enough to return to service Capesize ships, their biggest carriers. Mark Richardson, head of futures at Simpson, Spence & Young ship brokers, attributes the rise in prices in part to iron ore moving from Brazil and Australia to China, where such imports were halted months ago due to falling demand and disputes with Brazil.
"There are a lot of ships still sitting in semi lay-up," Richardson told the Financial Times.
"As soon as you start to get over these operating costs, they'll reactivate themselves and get moving."
Spot rates — those charged for immediate shipping — for certain routes are higher than average.
A Capesize vessel chartered from Western Australia to China on last week’s spot market carrying iron ore at $11,000 a day, Richardson says.
The revival in prices follows six months that saw charter rates fall nearly 99 per cent for the largest vessels and could encourage shipowners to put vessels back into service.
However, Richardson warns that returning formerly mothballed ships to service could create a vessel oversupply that depresses prices.
The Baltic Dry Index, the global index of prices for shipping commodities, jumped 7.5 percent on Friday, encouraging investors to move back into battered shipping stocks, Forbes reports.
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