The Drewry Multipurpose Time Charter Index tracks one-year period charter rates across a basket of vessel types and sizes and forecasts the market movement over the coming month. The vessel types include breakbulk and project cargo ships.
The Drewry Multipurpose Time Charter Index increased to $6,530 per day in January, representing a rise of 3.8% compared to the previous month. Over the year to January 2021 Drewry’s index is up 1.4%. Drewry expects the index to rise a further 2.2% in February to reach $6,675 per day.
Drewry Multipurpose Time Charter Index (US$ per day)
Source: Drewry Multipurpose Forecaster
Rates continued to rise in all sectors over January fuelled by the capacity problems in the container market. These led to multipurpose vessels being chartered to carry empty containers, for repositioning purposes, plus an increase in breakbulk demand, as these commodities were no longer worth enough to stuff into containers. This increased demand meant that January rates were even stronger than we had been expecting.
Going forward we expect this to continue, especially as there is already a market expectation that the usual slowdown for Chinese New Year holidays will not be taking place this year. The steady demand levels across all vessel types underpins our positive expectations for the short-term rate forecast.
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For access to the latest charter rates and forecasts across a range of multipurpose vessel types subscribe to Drewry’s Multipurpose Forecaster. Published quarterly it provides 5-year forecasts and market updates for the global Breakbulk and Heavy Lift shipping markets, together with supplementary monthly updates of the latest market developments, including charter rates and asset values.