The small-tonnage market remains depressed in the Black and Mediterranean Seas. In the last couple of weeks, ship owners managed to achieve a barely noticeable rate upturn only for shipments from Ukraine ($0.25-0.5/t up), which is quite far from what they expected more than a month after the start of the grain season.
According to a post on social media by Ukrainian Danube Shipping Company CEO Dmytro Moskalenko, a caravan of three Kapitan Antypov ships that left Izmail in early July has arrived in Linz. Preparations for the modernization of the first of the three vessels have begun.
The stevedoring companies of Liepaja SEZ handled 521,000 t of various types of goods in July, falling behind the June figure by 9% or 54,000 t.
Dynamics of average mazut prices, $/tonne
Caspit Trade (part of the Serbian Caspit Group), a fertilizer producer, has purchased two dry bulk carriers, CASPIT and Mark (with a total capacity of 2,800 tons), to transport fertilizers along the Danube. The company estimates the shipping time from Serbia to Ukraine at four to five days.
The small-tonnage shipping market still sees virtually no encouraging news for ship owners, although we have already left behind a month of new grain season. Note that during 1.5 months, rates ex Ukrainian ports have grown – or rather pushed from the bottom – by $1-1.5/t on short-haul routes and by $2-2.5/t in long-haul…… Read more »
Dynamics of average mazut prices, $/tonne
Ukrainian company NIBULON and Romanian freight forwarder Transport Trade Services S.A. (TTS) have signed a contract to extend their two-year cooperation in the new grain season. The new agreement provides for the handling of 1.6 million tons of Ukrainian products. In previous years, TTS handled 3.5 million tons of grain from Mykolaiv-based company.
On July 28, the Moldovan Railways (Calea Feratã din Moldova) received the first batch of P-65 rails from the Aktobe Rail and Section Works (Kazakhstan) as part of an agreement signed earlier this year. They will be used for the overhaul of railways in Moldova.
Whereas new grain season is gaining pace, owners of small-tonnage vessels still hope for higher activity. However, the market sentiment is not improving so far.