Capesize iron ore market ends week tepid, demand slack

摘要

Singapore—The Capesize market in both the Pacific and Atlantic basins ended the last trading day in February on a soft note, basis weak shipping demand and lower freight rates. On the paper side, the forward freight agreement market came off, with liquidity thin. “The market outlook is still bearish for March. The plunging bunker price is part of the reason. The sluggish shipping demand and lengthy tonnage list hurts. Also, we have not seen the positive signal from the paper market,” a Capesize shipowning source said with the expectation that the Pacific side would rebound earlier than the Atlantic side.