Smallest Ships Profitable Again as Logs Feed China Boom: Freight
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China is building the most property in at least a decade, expanding shipments of logs and adding to record commodity cargoes that are making the merchant fleet’s smallest ships profitable for the first time since 2011.
Global trade in logs will expand 10 percent to 127 million cubic meters (4.5 billion cubic feet) in 2013, according to Wood Resources International LLC, a research company in Bothell, Washington. Daily rates for 550-foot-long Handysizes will climb 29 percent to $9,750 next year, according to the median of nine analyst estimates compiled by Bloomberg. Investors may profit by buying freight swaps that are trading at $8,019, or 18 percent less than the forecast.