SSY: iron-ore shipping demand may gain once China steel cuts finish
Demand to transport iron ore may rebound once China ends steel-production cuts and steel prices may gain in the next several months because of the reduced supply, according to SSY Consultancy & Research Ltd., a unit of the world’s second-largest shipbroker. Output cuts by China, the world’s largest steelmaker, will probably continue to the year’s end because of limited power supplies for mills, the nation’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology said Sept. 15. The reductions are aimed at meeting energy-efficiency targets.
“The resulting widening in steelmaker margins would encourage further production within China once restrictions are lifted and support output in the rest of the world,” SSY Consultancy & Research Ltd. said in a report. Still, the cuts have “unsettled” shipowners’ confidence about immediate demand, it said as the Baltic Dry Index slid for a fifth day.
The index, a gauge of overall measure of commodity shipping costs, slumped 11 percent this week, the most in 10 weeks, according to the London-based Baltic Exchange. Today it fell 61 points, or 2.2 percent, to 2,676 points. Chinese iron-ore purchasing may rise once the restrictions are lifted, SSY Consultancy said.
Daily hire rates for capesize-class ships that typically deliver iron ore, the main steelmaking ingredient, declined 18 percent this week, the biggest slump in nine weeks, according to the Baltic Exchange. Rents dropped 4.3 percent to $33,812 today, leading declines among the four vessel types tracked by the bourse.
Charter costs for smaller panamaxes that also haul coal and grains fell 1.9 percent to $23,525 a day today and supramaxes lost 0.8 percent to $21,041. Handysizes were little changed at $15,964 a day.
SSY Consultancy is a unit of London-based Simpson Spence & Young Ltd.