Capesize market maintains bull run despite holiday lull

摘要

Singapore—The Capesize market continued its bull run May 4, despite public holidays in China, Japan and Greece. There was a significant standoff between owners and charterers, while offers and bids both edged higher. Freight rates stayed firm and market players attributed the strong performance to the thriving freight derivative market. “FFA is very active and moving higher, which means owners are waiting for it to go even higher instead of committing early in the week, considering some other countries still on holiday,” a shipbroker said. Supported by the solid freight improvement, Platts Cape T4 index for non-scrubber fitted ships soared to over $40,000/day, the highest since its launch in November 2019.