Daily discounts in the Pacific Capesizes are starting to slow from their earlier freefall, but continue to see downgrades of more than US$ 1,000 day-on-day on the round voyage rates, pushing last-done levels into the low-middle teens of US$ 13-14,000 on tonnage of 180,000 dwt on delivery Japan. Pressure has been unrelenting for most of April to date, but owners are optimistic that the floor will be reached this week already. This appears to be the case in the Atlantic where TARVs are evening out in the US$ 14,000s. The general cooling effect on world trade that has been worsened by the escalating trade war underway between the world’s biggest trade partners does no favours for the beleaguered Panamaxes. Even ling­ering congestion in the North Atlantic is not sup­porting rates as tonnage seems to be readily available for the majority of charterers who are actively seek­ing it out. As such, inter-Atlantic freight rates have fallen below US$ 9,000 daily on trans-Atlantic RVs based on UKC delivery and tonnage of 82,000 dwt. (For news & updates on dry bulk shipbroking, subscribe to the BMTI Daily Report.)