Chartering market at hand // week 45

摘要

Grain and agricultural products exported from Ukraine, the EU and Russia remain the key driver of the Black Sea and Mediterranean markets, while limited tonnage list (amid ongoing congestions within the grain export corridor) is still the main supporting factor. Smalltonnage owners are confidently keeping rates at quite comfortable levels in the Mediterranean Sea (current freights are on average 2.5 times higher than the OPEX level), while transportation costs from the ports of Romania, Bulgaria and Russia have even risen by $0.5-2/t. Only the rates ex Ukrainian ports are sliding down. The excitement around shipments from the Danube ports has eased a bit after the resumption of the grain corridor operation, which allowed charterers first to stabilize rates from Reni, Izmail, Odessa, Chornomorsk and Pivdenny, and then they have even started to cut freight levels ($4-8/t down over the week). Note that estimated earnings of owners working with Ukrainian grain are 1.5-2 times higher than the market average.