The black sea and Mediterranean market is struggling to restart after the stop due to the holidays in Russia and several European countries. After weeks of stagnation with practically no cargoes around there may be a glimpse of hope on the horizon or so hope most of the owners.
Currently the tonnage list still shows an abundant offer of ships against a slight demand of transport as reflected by few fresh cargoes, with a ratio of approximately 4/5 to 1. This strong imbalance keeps making the market sunk in the area, as shown from lower and lower levels of freight per metric tonnes for shipments. Presently the intermed, intercont and transatlantic routes run around $10.000 per day as benchmark for a 38000DWT with delivery passing canakkale in terms of time charter equivalent. It turns approximately to -20% or more in respect to the index of the market for the handysize, so called BHSI. It closed today at $12.561, with a further decrease of 3.4% compared to last week; only the route to the far east via Suez outperformed the index although at the lowest levels since December.
In spite of the tensions in the gulf of aden and the consequent reduced transit via suez, that has naturally increased the tonn/miles and of fact reduced the offer of vessels, the market in Mediterranean and black sea struggles to recover for handysizes.
Even the conflict between Russia and Ukraine fails in sustaining the market as in recent months; the increasing number of shipowners interested in these trades have created an excess of offer. In addition, the so-called dark fleet keeps trading in the area without extra war risk insurance has allowed the cost per tonne exported to fall and in fact the market, consequently only such a owners and same of really old vessels with low extra costs can compete with low freight of trades via Russia/Ukraine. At this time of contraction, only the export from east-coast South America and inter-Asian trade support the upward index. We hope that a repositioning and a slight increase in the demand for transport will follow soon, leading to both a significant recovery and a rebound for handysizes in the area.
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