Global Spot Chartering Activity Has Increased

Through the first three days of this week, the Baltic Dry Index has fallen by 24 points to 943 points. This represents an decrease of 2% from the end of last week. In total, 62 cargoes were chartered in the spot market last week, with a considerably large amount of cargoes surfacing on Wednesday. In comparison, 59 cargoes were chartered during the first three days of last week.

Chinese Coal Port Stockpiles Very Low

Coal stockpiles at Qinhuangdao, China’s largest coal port currently stand at approximately 4.5 million tons. This is 200,000 tons (-4%) less than was stockpiled a week ago and marks the lowest level seen since October 2011. In addition, stockpiles remain down by a considerable amount on a year-on-year basis. A year ago, Qinhuangdao stockpiles stood at 5.5 million tons (which is a low level) but this year stockpiles are down by 1 million tons (-18%) and now stand at a critical low. The low level of coal stockpiled at Qinhuangdao is likely to lead to surge in Chinese coal imports in the near-term. This will most help the panamax segment of the dry bulk market, and will also help the capesize market.

Various Nations Have Set Steel Production Records

The world's steel mills produced approximately 141.3 million tons of crude steel in March, 16.3 million tons (13%) more than was produced in February and 6.3 million tons (5%) more than was produced in March 2013. The previous record was136.6 million tons produced in May 2013. Chinese crude steel production totaled a record 70.3 million tons, which was 8.2 million tons (13%) more than produced in February. Indian crude steel production totaled a record 7.3 million tons, which was 1 million tons (16%) more than produced in February. Japanese crude steel production totaled a record 9.7 million tons, which was 1.3 million tons (15%) more than was produced in February. South Korea crude steel production totaled a record 6.1 million tons, which was 800,000 tons (15%) more than was produced in February.

Year-On-Year Increase in Brazilian Iron Ore Production

Vale has reported its iron ore production figures for Q1. Q1 saw 71.1 million tons of iron ore produced, which marked a year-on-year increase of 6.2 million tons (10%). Vale's iron ore pellet production in Q1 totaled 9.9 million tons, which was 500,000 tons (-5%) less than was produced during Q4 but marked a year-on-year increase of 800,000 tons (9%). The year-on-year increase in iron ore and pellet production is very encouraging. Vale's iron ore production is very seasonal and surges further during Q2, Q3, and Q4 of every year.