In its latest monthly report, the Hamburg-based shipbroker, Toepfer Transport expects the charter rates to slip further in February. The shipbroker assesses the charter rates in the MPP sector for February of 2023 to land at $15.137, slipping 4.8 percent from the previous month.
However, over the following six months, Toepfer Transport expects its index to nudge back up 1.66 percent. For the following twelve months, the shipbroker foresees an index drop of 1.51 percent. Compared to February 2022, when TMI stood at $21.863, February 2023 figures are 30.76 percent down.
The shipbroker’s analysts noted that similar to the Handysize Bulk market, the rates suffer from a significant decline of demand from the minor bulk commodities sector.
A profitable mix of cargo on a MPP vessel usually includes some minor bulks which, as a base cargo, bring a good contribution to cover the voyage costs and increase the vessel stability for heavylift operations while leaving some good space for better-paying project cargoes. A lack of minor bulk parcels therefore has an impact on the fleet utilisation
the comment reads.
The TMI-P indicates some ambivalence with regards to the market development for the next 12 months. The spread of the assessments is higher than the result may indicate, but the optimistic and the pessimistic sentiments well balance each other
the analysts say.
