Golden summer for tramp owners

摘要

The charter market maintained its momentum over the past weeks, with period rates for fully cellular tonnage continuing to firm during August. The largest gearless vessels (in excess of 5,500 TEU) began to lead the market up thanks to sustained demand which saw spot/prompt availability almost evaporate since July. Just recently, the firmer trend branched out into the panamax, handy and feeder type vessels, as illustrated by a more benign performance of the New ConTex. The market barometer for the 1,100-4,250 TEU charter market sector made good some of the earlier losses and was up five points or 1.3% month-on-month by 17 August. Interestingly, it is the much-dismissed traditional panamax sector that posted the most significant improvements.