Australian coal fixture volumes have continued to increase, as eastern Australia has recovered from the heavy rain that occurred in late March.  Parts of coal-rich eastern Australia received as much as 300 millimeters of rain during the Week Ending March 23.  Throughout April, however, most of eastern Australia has received only 5 to 50mm of rain each week.

 

Due to late March’s heavy rainfall (and to a lesser extent strikes and train derailments), an average of only 2.5 vessels were chartered to haul coal from Australia during the Weeks Ending March 23 through April 13.  This week, however, saw 9 vessels chartered to haul coal from Australia.  This was the largest amount of vessels chartered to haul coal from Australia since the Week Ending February 3.

 

For the near term, we expect that a moderate amount of vessels will be chartered to haul Australian coal.  This has helped support panamax rates.  Australia’s Bureau of Meteorology has released its latest rainfall prediction, however, which predicts that much of eastern Australia has a 70 to 75% chance of receiving an above average amount of rain from now through the end of July. If heavy rainfall does occur, Australian coal fixtures will come under renewed pressure.