Monday, January 12, 2009
Dry bulk market keeps its momentum
Monday, 12 January 2009
Although the beginning of the year wasn’t all that impressive, after a few sessions, the Baltic Dry index (BDI), which measures shipping costs around the globe, has risen for a series of sessions, indicating that underlying demand for goods may be returning to the market. The index rose 6.21 percent to 872 points late on Friday, its best run-up since Dec. 17, but is still down about 93 percent from the lifetime high of 11,793 it reached in May 2008. Nevertheless, the last couple of sessions saw the index staging an accumulative 10.5 percent recovery, hitting its highest point since October. Capesize vessel rates jumped by 20% on Friday as excess vessels supply continues to shrink, driving up prices for remaining vessels. The cost to charter a Capesize vessel has leaped nearly 50% in the last week. This has been directly reflected in the relative BCI (Baltic Capesize Index) which has been steadily increasing and ended the week at 1,728 up 367 points - equaling to a 27% increase week on week.
Meanwhile, Oppenheimer, a US investment bank in a report on the shipping outlook for 2009 said that cape size rates would average $24,000 per day in 2009. Rates would only rise slightly average to $29,000 per day in 2010. It added that cash break even costs for a cape size were in the range of $11,000 to $13,000 per day.
According to Weberseas latest report, activity remains strong in the sale & purchase market for dry bulk carriers, with many enquiries mostly for modern tonnage. “After a long time we are reporting the sale of a capesize bulker, namely the m/v GOLDEN WING (170k/97) which was sold to Greek buyers for US$ 27 million. We can compare this to the sale of the m/v BET PERFORMER (172k/97) which was sold in May 2008 months ago at US$ 132 mill, a price reduction of approx 80% in 8 months” said Weberseas. In another deal, three older panamax bulkers, built between 1983-1984 were also sold for approximately $3 million, which in Weberseas’ words is showing that even in this difficult market environment these older units can still find a home other than the scrap yards.
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