The index has continued to strengthen over the quarter, Clarkson noted, climbing to more than $40,000 a day by mid-March and close to its post-financial crisis high point of around $42,600 a day.
Container rate indicators are more than four times long-term averages, Clarkson said, and the company’s charter rate index has hit new highs of 434 points this month, up by 20% since the beginning of the year. Bulk carriers have had a bullish start too, with the strongest start to a year since 2008. Average bulker rates have climbed 28% year-on-year, averaging $22,880.
Tanker rates have jumped too, mostly because of the impact of Russia’s war in Ukraine. Average earnings in the first-half of April shot up to about $40,000 a day, an astonishing increase on the miserable $8,000 a day average between mid-2020 and February 2022.
Clarkson identifies a number of issues that look set to sustain a positive backdrop. These include port congestion which is rising again to near-record highs, rising trade volumes (although economic downsides are building), war-related disruption, and Chinese lockdowns.
The ClarkSea Index is a weighted average of vessel earnings across the tanker, bulk carrier, container ship, and gas carrier sectors.
Copyright © 2024. All rights reserved. Seatrade, a trading name of Informa Markets (UK) Limited.
Add Seatrade Maritime News to your Google News feed.  |
