Baltic Exchange has issued the gas report for the 2nd week of 2023 dated 13th January 2023.
LNG
LNG continues its fall this week with all three routes showing drops on spot assessments. A continued mild winter, and higher inventory supplies in Asia, suggests that the potential for a surge in demand due to the new Lunar New Year is not guaranteed. That is not to say that there haven’t been fixtures. However, rates and vessel availability do have bearish overtones with relet tonnage being pushed out with particulars. That makes them less accessible than a position list may first suggest.
The BLNG1g route Aus-Japan fell by $23,728 per day to publish just over six digits at $106,051. While greater daily loses were felt in the Atlantic, where BLNG2g and BLNG3g fell by $34,861 and $29,365 respectively, this pushed the run from Houston-Isle Of Grain below $100k for the first time since September 2022 to $85,299. At the time of writing on BLNG3g Houston-Japan, we remain just over $100k per day with a daily rate of $103,421. Nevertheless, the directional movement of the market suggest this will be broken next week.
Period remains firm with enquiries working for multi-month/year deals beginning in 2024. For 2023 there is less availability of ships with so many fixed off previously, but opportunities can arise. Current estimations for a 174k 2-Stroke vessel with 0.085% boil off and delivery one month ahead: $180,250 for 12 months, and $168,250 for three years.
LPG
In the east it has been mixed, rates have risen over $4 from the start of the week to close at $82.286 – but there is still uncertainty. With some Chinese counterparties coming out in the early part of the week it created belief of extra demand, which bolstered the ARB. But when these didn’t come to fruition on the last publication day there was a slight correction down from the week high of $83. When it comes to actual fixing there has been less to discuss with some vessels being fixed around the $83-$84 region, but the year hasn’t been flushed with firm enquiry.
BLPG2 and BLPG3 have been more active with more fixtures concluded already for the month of Feb. However, there is rising concern that there is not enough product for ships to be adequately absorbed. Rates did rise throughout the week but dipped at the end to close at $74.2 for a Houston-Flushing and $127.857 for Houston-Chiba. There are ships available and rates have fallen, but that hasn’t meant that the first half of February has been void of fixing, one vessel was reportedly fixed for Houston-Chiba for mid Feb at $133.
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Source: Baltic Exchange
