Trade Down

Oil Prices Are Down … But Are They Out?

U.S. oil prices fell Monday on renewed concerns that the OPEC cartel's recent cut in production would not be enough to counter the impact of a global economic slowdown. U.S. light sweet crude for September delivery traded down 1.4 percent, or 23 cents, at $26.96 a barrel. London Brent futures for September delivery traded down 21 cents to $24.98 a barrel. Oil prices have declined steadily since late May amid increasing evidence that the global economic slowdown is eating into demand for petroleum this year. Concern over falling prices and a sustained rise in spare petroleum stocks spurred the OPEC producer cartel to agree last week to a 1 million barrels per day (bpd) output cut. But traders were reluctant to push prices up without indications that the world economy is rebounding. "If the trend of a build in U.S. crude stocks continues and there are no signs the economy is recovering, that will push prices down in the weeks ahead," said Lawrence Eagles of GNI Research. The U.S. Commerce Department on Friday said gross domestic product, the broadest measure of the nation's economic health, grew at the lowest quarterly rate in eight years, at 0.7 percent in the second quarter. A meeting over the weekend in Geneva of the oil ministers of Saudi Arabia, Venezuela and Mexico ended with a vow to keep the market adequately supplied and stable following OPEC's supply curb decision.

Aframax Rates Jump 40 Percent From Mexico To Venezuela

The cost of an Aframax tanker to carry crude from Mexico and Venezuela to the U.S. has surged by 40 percent in the last week as cargo owners scrabble over a fast-dwindling fleet, but in Europe trading is dull. "You won't find a ship available now until August 12, so the ship owners are getting very bullish on rates," one U.S. broker said of the Caribbean market on Wednesday. He pegged the upcoast trade on Aframaxes (70,000 tonners) at W165.

Declining Oil Output Attributed to Lackluster Tanker Stock Performance

Tanker stocks have taken a severe beating this month on declining oil output and global economic jitters, but several analysts are predicting a steady recovery and consider the slump a good buying opportunity. "Charter hire rates are expected to rebound steadily through 2001 as Iraq and OPEC increase oil production," investment bank Lehman Brothers said in a report on Wednesday. "Recent weakness in the oil tanker sector provides an extremely attractive entry point for investors

Great Lakes Ore Trade Down Nine Percent in April

Shipments of iron ore on the Great Lakes totaled 5.6 million tons in April, a decrease of 9% compared to a year ago. However, loadings were 11% ahead of the month’s five-year average. Shipments from U.S. ports totaled 4.9 million tons, a decrease of 9.5% compared to a year ago. The April total included 257,000 tons shipped to Quebec City for loading into oceangoing vessels and delivery overseas. Shipments from Canadian ports totaled 700,000 tons

SKorean Shipbuilders Lower on Steel Price Concerns

Shares of shipbuilders and automakers were lower in late morning trading as investors react belatedly to the possible increase in steel prices, reports indicated Hyundai Heavy Industries was down 4,500 won or 1.2 percent at 380,000 won, Samsung Heavy Industries was off 600 won or 1.9 percent to 30,400 won and Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering fell 300 won or 0.8 percent to 39,300 won. Hyundai Motor was down 1,300 won or 1.9 percent at 67,600 won and Kia Motors down 50 won or 0

Port of Hamburg Results: Exports Up, Imports Down

The Port of Hamburg’s overall results for the first nine months characterized by export growth and an import downturn. In the first nine months of 2012 the Port of Hamburg achieved total throughput of 98.1 million tons (down 0.8 percent). General cargo throughput at 69.2 million tons was just ahead of last year’s figure (up 0.2 percent). Bulk cargo throughput at 28.8 million tons stayed behind the previous year’s (down 3.3 percent)

Reliability at Ship and Box Level Down Slightly in Q3

Container service reliability across all trades fell marginally in the third quarter with the percentage of on-time ship arrivals dropping to 73.5%, down from the record high of 75.7% set in the second quarter, according to Drewry’s quarterly report Carrier Performance Insight. Drewry expects that the arrival timeliness of containerships and containers will decline again in the fourth quarter, due to the impact of hurricane Sandy and several disruptions from vessel winter programmes

Opposite Movements for Sea and Air Rates

Ocean and airfreight rates moved in opposite directions in January, according to Drewry’s monthly Sea and Air Shipper Insight. Ocean shippers moving cargo on the key East-West trades continued to see marginal increases for spot cargo in January due to a combination of a seasonal volume boost prior to Chinese New Year and capacity cutbacks in the form of blank voyages. Drewry’s East-West Freight Rate Index, a weighted average of container rates across Asia-Europe

Great Lakes Limestone & Coal Trade Up

Lakes Limestone Trade up 16% in September Shipments of limestone on the Great Lakes totaled 3,461,606 net tons in September, an increase of 3.6 percent compared to August, and 16 percent better than a year ago.  However, the trade was down 10.7% compared to the month’s 5-year average. Loadings at U.S. ports were up 342,000 tons compared to a year ago.  Shipments from Canadian docks increase by 135,000 tons.

Ocean Carriers Get Marginal Impact From Capacity Cuts

Total container capacity supply by ocean carriers on the three main east/west shipping trades rose by an average of five percent in 2001 despite the recent attempts of several carriers to remove excess capacity, according to a report released this week by ComPair Data Inc., a global ocean shipping research and information technology firm based in Jacksonville, Fla. Several ocean carriers in the transpacific and Asia/Europe routes made capacity cut-backs in the last three months of 2001