Week 12, 2018 (Mar.19-Mar.23), the International Grain Future Freight (IGF) reported the Panamax forward freight rate of U.S. Gulf-Tianjin route (soybean) from Jun. to Jul. in 2018, and the trend is shown in the chart below.

Up to now, the soybean reaping in Brazil has been completed 58%. It fell behind when compared with that in the same period last year (62%), but 3% higher than average for the past five years and 10% for the last week. This week, some soybean production areas suffered rain, but the soybean reaping was expected to not be influenced.

In terms of the shipping market, the future freight rate continued going up. In details, it kept $34.75/ton from Mar.19 (Mon.) to Mar.20 (Tues.) and then slightly increased $0.06/ton on Mar.21 (Wed.). On Mar.23 (Fri.), it rose again and was finally closed at $35.31/ton, increasing 1.61% compared with that on Mar.16 (the last release day of Week 11).