Is it the calm before the storm or are we going to see a low and flat market for a long period?
This question arises when looking at the current Atlantic market. A market fragmented but mostly low, flat and unchanged in recent periods.
Interesting is the relative issue to the “Safe Corridors” in the Black Sea, which have been extended for further two months, but excluding from the program the Ukrainian loading port of Yuzhny that so far represented approximately half of the net exports.
The quantity of grains exported to date amounts to some 30 million metric tons, of which 7 million to China, 5 million to Turkey and 3 million to Spain, with the Corn that remains the live-liest asset and that represents about 50% of the total released so far.
Certainly, as a result of the extension, the feelings of shipowners are positive, with some of these who prefer to wait for a week spot in the hope of getting then higher freight rates in the near future. At the moment, however, all this positivity is not really found.
If the US market is holding up slightly more, South America is experiencing a slight decline. The only route that seems to be holding, indeed, regarding the Handy/Supra market, is the one from the ECSA for the WCSA, where due to a “not optimal” repositioning, the time charter rates are being maintained rather high, sometimes also above 20.000 USD.
On the front haul side, instead, in these weeks few cargoes of sugar are coming out and the expectations are also in this case not so rosy, with its financial price that hit 24 USD/Lbs on the 25th of May after a decrease from April.
Hope at this point, as a true long shot, is that the reopening and extension of the Ukrainian corridors can affect the well-being of the entire Atlantic market, determining thanks to good feelings a psychological and financial rise.
