U.S. Gulf of Mexico
For owners, the U.S. Gulf has been one of the better places in which to have a ship. Space has been scarce for a while now, and freight levels have been steadily rising. However, the month of May sees rather more open tonnage, and it is not being fixed away that quickly. It is conceivable that demand will pick up after the Easter holidays, but this may be too late for those ships that are open end April or early May, especially those ships that are committed to a specific destination yet still have space to fill.

This certainly seems to be the case on the route from the U.S. Gulf to Brazil and Argentina, where there are a handful of ships from which to choose. From Houston to Santos 5,000 ton cargoes have been fetching low $70s/t, but competition among the owners may help drive that number down.

Transatlantic eastbound has been firm for some time, with levels in the mid-to-high $60s/t payable for 5,000 ton parcels from the U.S. Gulf to Rotterdam, but this level too may come under pressure. Ethanol and styrene have been underpinning this route, and it remains to be seen how much material actually finalises over the next few days.

U.S. Gulf-to-Far East has not seen any notable increase in demand, and freights remain in the region of mid $50s/t for 5,000 ton parcels from the Gulf to principal scheduled Far East ports.

Europe
The short working week has not given any favours for owners with ships in prompt positions, especially those that are open in the Mediterranean. Having said that, there are a string of cargoes that have still to be fixed, and it may be that the situation balances itself out. So far, however, we have noticed that owners are more willing to concede a slight decrease in freights just to have those prompt positions covered.

Transatlantic westbound has been fairly active with pyrolysis gasoline especially, and there have also been notable fixtures of urea ammonia nitrate, naphtha and caustic. Freight levels have not necessarily increased, although owners are trying to exert upwards pressure.

Europe-to-Asia remains unexciting, and there is a fair amount of open space in May. The majority of enquiries are small, typically 1,000 to 2,000t parcels, the rates for which have not really declined. For example, 2,000 tons of acetone from Rotterdam to Yangtze was fixed at over $100/t, although it could be interesting to see what a 5,000 to 10,000 ton cargo could achieve in comparison.

Asia
The domestic Asian market has fallen into a bit of a trough recently. There is still a multitude of prompt ships open in the northeast Asia region, whereas demand is a bit ragged. The bulk of enquiries consist of small parcels of 2,000 tons or less, such as butanols, base oils or plasticisers, or alternatively are massive cargoes of styrene and paraxylene of 10,000 to 20,000 tons each going into China. We have seen a couple of 3,000 to 5,000 ton shipments of xylene into China and Vietnam from Korea, but these are apparently quite rare.

Export business continues to see benzene and cyclohexane in particular quoted to Europe from Indonesia and Thailand, the rates for which are typically well over $100/t for 5,000 ton quantities. Traders are also beginning to check on styrene from Korea to Europe.