Even with the stabilizing trends of early July having comforted owners about their summer prospects, overall cargo demand continues to wane inexorably across the European coaster trades. Week-on-week discounts have been manageable, but they are discounts nonetheless and owners could be dealing with some serious cumulative discounts by the time holiday season is through. Northbound trips from the North of Spain to Ireland are still fetching middle EUR 20s/mt of EUR 25/mt, depending on terms, though charterers have been having some success in slowly moving that range downward over the course of the month so far. Southbound trips remain comparatively more lucrative with talk of EUR 50s/mt still being fixed on the more urgent trades from SCUK to the Turkish Med. Other sources say high EUR 40s/mt are the best that an owner could hope for on this run in the current spot market. Steady-to-slumping bunker prices have not given owners any leverage in negotiations either, leaving them with little recourse but to take what the charterers are offering.
Fortunately for them, charterers have been relatively considerate in Baltic trades with westward-bound cargoes from the Baltic States to ARAG still able to secure middle EUR 20s/mt of over EUR 25/mt on general cargoes of 5,000mt. Open tonnage has been steadily expanding across the Baltic Sea and North Sea routes, which has put owners in an accommodating position for cargoes that do come along. The bears appear to be in charge for now. (photo: AtoB@C Shipping)
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