The Riverside Market Reports
Palm & Veg Report, OCTOBER 2024
Shipping is still a logistical nightmare at the moment especially out in the Far East where tonnage lists are short, freight rates are high and delays to ships have become almost the new norm.
Many charterers, especially those without forward coverage have been left feeling perplexed as they grapple with freight rates and ship-owners earlier feelings of hope have quickly turned to euphoria as they reap even better returns. CPP markets have lost a little bit of their shine recently however voyage earnings remain fairly strong in both the East and West and with renewed fears of a full blown conflict in the Middle East things could rapidly change at short notice. The bio-diesel markets are continuing to dominate the shipping headlines and for those who like statistics, more than 62 millions tonnes out of 260 millions tonnes of edible oil produced annually will be used in the renewable energy sector in 2024 and, it is almost impossible to imagine how the freight and commodity markets might look without it!
Most shipping markets resemble a sad face emoji at the moment and there is very little data in the marketplace to suggest that we are going to see a rapid improvement in activity any time soon, despite the ongoing issues in the Middle East. Freight rates across all sectors of the edible oil market nudged predictably lower last month in some cases sharply lower and it is reasonable to conclude that the with the US and Chinese economies slowing down that most of the main shipping trade routes around the world will remain on a flat or declining curve for a while. Things could change if Donald Trump prowls the corridors of the White house again, however this looks less of a certainty today than it did six months ago. CPP and chemical export markets have remained stubbornly sluggish over the last few months and the disappointing Chinese oil export quotas released at the end of last month for Q4 did little to restore longer term confidence of an uptick in activity in the Asian CPP trades although at time of writing there have been pockets of activity here and there of late.