China's shipping rates jumped back again following quick tumbling previously, as coastal coal market gained strong steam from ports' supply shortfall and utilities' robust buying.
On January 5, the freight rate for 15,000-20,000 DWT vessels from Qinhuangdao port to Ningbo rose 2.8% from previous low to 58.6 yuan/t, showed data from industry portal sxcoal.com.
The freight rate for 40,000-50,000 DWT ships from Jingtang port to Ningbo climbed 7.8% to 51.4 yuan/t, while that for ships from Huanghua port to Shanghai gained 6.3% to 52.4%, data showed.
It was mainly attributed to a steady ascending of spot thermal coal market at northern ports amid a lack of cargoes.
Figures showed that coal inflows and outflows at Qinhuangdao port, at 588,000 tonnes and 584,000 tonnes, stayed relatively in balance last week, while the vessels expected to arrive have reached 15 on January 8, surging 500% from a week earlier.
At Huanghua port, daily coal inflows averaged 525,000 tonnes last week, lower than outflows of 590,000 tonnes.
Major coal-consuming enterprises were scrambling to beef up stocks to meet urgent demand amid frigid winter. Data showed that daily coal usage at China's six major coastal power firms remained above 730,000 tonnes in recent days.
The high demand made their stocks, averaging 10.23 million tonnes, only enough to cover less than 14 days of use, and more restocking demand may be unleashed in the further.
However, rallied shipping rates have dented shipping demand in coastal coal market and resulted in weak trades. This also dragged freight rates to slump 32% in early January.
Sources: sxcoal
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