Increased world economic growth and volume increases in all types of dry cargo keep providing tail winds for multipurpose vessels[ds_preview]. Period rates continued to push up over the past weeks, with longer durations commanding premiums on typical 6-months contracts. »Owners anticipate further increases, so they prefer to fix only short periods,« as Jan Tüxen, head of the mpp/handy charter desk at Ernst Russ Shipbroker told HANSA. Average 6-month TC rates were up by 33% y-o-y for 12,000 dwt class mpp ships (currently around 8,000 $/d), by 30% for 17,000 dwt units (8,500$/d) and by 26% for large 30,000 dwt tweendeckers (9,500 $), according to Ernst Russ. Anecdotal evidence suggests, that mpp operators have seen a rise of general breakbulk and minor bulk volumes over the past year whereas heavy and high-value project cargoes are lagging behind somewhat which might explained by longer lead times for industrial projects. Heavy load cargoes are expected, though, to pick up in 2019. The improved medium-term outlook is not yet filtering through to charter rates for ships with heavy lift gear. However, according to Ernst Russ there are more interested buyers emerging in the S&P market for heavy lift ships.
Cargo freight rates, by contrast, are reported to be merely stable or slightly improving, meaning that charter operators risk facing their margins squeezed if they don’t fight for higher cargo volumes. Freight buyers from the project forwarding sector say that spot freight rates on a few routes including intra-Asia and Europe-Persian Gulf increased by up to 15% y-o-y.
