Shipping Bears Ascendant as Fleet Growth Swamps Cargoes: Freight

Shipping analysts are getting more bearish on the outlook for rates to haul iron ore and coal as China, the biggest consumer of both commodities, grows at the slowest pace in three years at a time of record fleet expansion.

Capesizes, each holding about 180,000 metric tons of cargo, will earn an average of $11,709 a day in 2012, the lowest in at least 14 years, the median of 10 analyst estimates compiled by Bloomberg shows. They predicted $15,000 in a December survey. The fleet will expand 13 percent this year, compared with a 4 percent advance in cargo volumes, according to London-based Clarkson Plc, the world’s biggest shipbroker.