Drewry’s Multipurpose Time Charter Index increased to $7,795 per day in March, representing a rise of almost 15% compared to the previous month.
Drewry’s latest assessment – April update
Over the year to March 2021, Drewry’s index is up 24% and they expect the index to rise a further 6.5% in April with rates reaching $8,300 per day.
Multipurpose Time Charter Index – Apr 21
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.
Drewry’s latest assessment – April update
The Drewry Multipurpose Time Charter Index increased to $7,795 per day in March, representing a rise of almost 15% compared to the previous month. Over the year to March 2021 Drewry’s index is up 24%. Drewry expects the index to rise a further 6.5% in April to reach $8,300 per day.
According to Drewry, rates for all sectors of the market rose significantly over March, as the MPV charter market benefitted from capacity constraints in both the container and bulk sectors, both largely down to port congestion, albeit for different reasons. With breakbulk demand firm and charter rates in the competing sectors at levels not seen for a number of years, shippers returned to the MPV sector for their transport requirements.
While Drewry remains cautiously optimistic about the longer-term outlook for the sector, the continued uncertainty around global recovery coupled with the surety that the capacity issues will start to improve from 3Q21, means that the shorter-term outlook is weakening, albeit very slowly. Conditions are still favourable for the multipurpose and heavylift sector, but growth is not expected to be as strong in 2Q21 as it was in 1Q21.
