The Drewry Multipurpose Time Charter Index tracks one-year period charter rates across a basket of vessel types and sizes and forecasts the market movement over the coming month. The vessel types include breakbulk and project cargo ships.
The Drewry Multipurpose Time Charter Index continued the decline over August, albeit at a faster rate than we had expected. The index averaged $10,650 per day over the month, a drop of 2.5% compared to July.
The drop is mainly attributed to a much quieter summer than expected, with shippers still adopting a wait and see policy – no-one wants to fix whilst the market is dropping! Couple that with political and economic uncertainties and an inflated market and a further decrease is almost inevitable into September. Our current prediction is for our MPV Index to decline a further 1.6% over the coming month.
Drewry’s latest assessment
Over August 2022, both the bulk and container spot markets have reported increasingly negative sentiment as demand weakened, while capacity levels remained steady. For the MPV sector, Asia remains a hot spot with much of the weakness in the Atlantic region. Increasing concerns regarding US inflation, European recession and global energy prices have reduced consumer confidence, although again this sector is slightly behind the curve as energy and mining cargoes remain steady.
Going forward we expect to see rates continue to decline, albeit they are still at historically high levels, but the potential pick up after the holidays may slow that decline slightly. Our Index forecast for September is therefore a decrease of 1.6%.
Related Research: Multipurpose Shipping Sector
For access to the latest charter rates and forecasts across a range of multipurpose vessel types subscribe to Drewry’s Multipurpose Forecaster. Published quarterly it provides 5-year forecasts and market updates for the global Breakbulk and Heavy Lift shipping markets, together with supplementary monthly updates of the latest market developments, including charter rates and asset values.
Source: Drewry