London: Although the Baltic Exchange noted a very positive end to last week for capesize vessels, with rates "much stronger with a tight supply of tonnage in the Atlantic and the major producers once again mopping up tonnage", it cautioned, "The Lunar New Year holidays next week could put a brake on the market and this rush to fix could just be the result of the upcoming holidays."
However, it stated, "Nevertheless a charterer was said to be bidding a modern capesize $30,000 daily for a trip to the east and a 180,000-tonner coming from the east reportedly agreed a timecharter rate equating to the low $17.00 range. Those few charterers looking for transatlantic rounds were chasing very few ships and some talked of the rate at/or going to $20,000 daily.
In the east Rio Tinto and BHP Billiton was once again busy in the east with rates now nudging over $6.00 for West Australia/China runs. The backhaul route has been slow, but there was talk of timecharter business down from Richards Bay to the Continent equating to about $7.40 basis Rotterdam discharge. There has been period interest and as the week drew to a close came a rumour of an almost 20-year old 152,000-tonner fixing for about a year with April delivery in the east at $20,500 daily with just 2.5% commission." [26/01/09]
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