Capesizes began the week with a glimmer of hope in the Pacific as the Western Australia/China run fixed marginally higher and there was talk of better in the Atlantic but little fixed. Paper meanwhile trended down for most of the session with some stop loss selling on the Q3/4 contracts pushing it to a new low, while Cal 16 also traded down.
Buyers briefly returned and sellers pulled back a little but the market is essentially flat and with little or no physical impetus it’s hard to see a breakout. The market dipped again Thursday, but bids returned to leaving the curve well supported on the close. Buying interest could be down to short covering ahead of the public holidays rather than anything more fundamental.
Under continued pressure on panamaxes, testing the bottom end of the recent ranges with May-June trading down and Q3 and Q4 testing support while sellers hover around last done. We held a tight and steady range on Thursday with little deviation, though Q3 and Q4 held support levels while on deferred we did see some slightly easier levels coming through.
Supramaxes were more active especially on the deferred though prompt months were weaker too. The Cals softened in size and the midweek index stepped into negative territory with rates following suit. Weaker again with rates slipping as the week ended, June and Q3 following the softer trend with another negative index prompting more selling interest on Q4.
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