Capesize market analysis

摘要

The Capesize bulker fleet consists of 542 ships totalling 84.3M DWT spread among 200 or so owners. It is a fleet that after a couple of years of decline is increasing again. In the past year, the fleet has increased by 4.68 per cent, having returned to its historical growth rate. The single year of decline in 1998 was a direct result of the very poor return owners were receiving after the Asian financial crisis - the sector is highly dependent on the Asia Pacific import market. The fleet has one major responsibility: to transport coal and iron ore; and it carries 90 per cent of the total sea-borne trade of these commodities. With a dramatic improvement in rates over the past year, scrapping has dwindled to almost nothing, giving rise to concerns of future over-supply.