Lingering oversupply of vessels and retarded international trade growth continue to take a toll on the bulk shipping freight rates.
Freight rates have not undergone any notable change due to absence of demand for vessels. Industry experts have predicted the sorry state-of-affairs to persist at least throughout this year; thus ruling out any recovery in the freight rates.
Interestingly, the faint hope for seeing some improvement in freight rates due to the recent spurt in steel production in China also did not materialize as iron ore inventories at Chinese ports have increased, indicating demand for vessels to get lower.
Current freight rates (coal cargoes)
| Route | Supramax | Panamax |
| Australia to India | 11 | 8 |
| South Africa to India | 10.5 | 9 |
| Indonesia to India | 5.5 | 5.5 |
Freights in USD/MT
Source: SteelMint Research
Current freight rates (iron ore cargoes)
| Route | Supramax |
| India to China | 7.8 |
Freights in USD/MT
Source: SteelMint Research
The Baltic Dry Index has showed no notable movement due to the muted demand. On 12May’16, the index was recorded at 579 points. The index is an indicator of global commodity freight rate movement in respect to all classes of vessels, carrying all commodities, including coal and iron ore.
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