Tanker Weekly – January 16, 2011
Baltic Dirty Tanker Index fell 7.3%; Baltic Clean Tanker Index rose 2.4%.
Markets well supplied with ships available, clean rates probably rose on clean products being shipped to tight West European markets.
Archive for the ‘Commodities’ Category
U.S. Freight Carloads Weekly – January 15, 2011
U.S. railroads originated 285,108 carloads, up 20.4% compared with the same week in 2010 and down 1.1% compared with 5-year average. Week over week change was 20.4%.
Significant improvement.
U.S. Natural Gas Weekly – January 15, 2011
Lot of work on my day job, so I didn’t have time to get to this…
Working gas in storage fell 138 Bcf from previous week. The consensus was at 146 Bcf.
Storage level 107 Bcf higher than same time year ago. In short a replay of last’s year oversupply.
U.S. Petroleum Weekly – January 13, 2011
Crude oil stocks fell 2.2 million barrels; Gasoline stocks rose 5.1 million barrels; Distillate stocks were up 2.7 million barrels; Propane/propylene stocks were down 3.4 million barrels; Other oils stocks decreased 3.4 million barrels; Total crude oil and petroleum stocks were 0.9 million barrels higher for the week.
Refinery utilization rose 1.6% to 86.4%.
Implied crude oil demand remained unchanged.
Crude oil and petroleum product net imports rose 1.4 million barrels to 9.3 million barrels.
Large gasoline stockpiling because of bad weather. Going into new year crude oil stocks will probably rise on refiner restocking and not so stellar demand.
Baltic Dry Index At 1480, Down 1.0%
Down 1.0%. It keeps going down…
Rig Count Weekly – January 10, 2011
Number of crude oil drilling rigs rose for 12; Number of natural gas drilling rigs fell for 5.
On world scale number of oil & gas drilling rigs rose for 76 in December.
Dry Bulk Weekly – January 10, 2011
Baltic dry index fell 14.3% in the last two weeks; Capesize Index was down 20.5%; Panamax Index rose 4.9%; Supramax Index was down 10.2%; Handysize Index fell 7.1%.
Iron stockpiles & steel inventory mostly unchanged; Iron ore and steel prices stable. Today’s China trade balance data was weak and I would be careful until we find out whether is it government orchestrated year end slowdown or a genuine one.
Chinese Trade Balance Surplus Smaller Than Expected In December
China trade balance was reported at USD 13.1 billion vs. USD 22.9 billion in November and USD 20.8 billion consensus. Export and import growth were running at 17.9 and 25.6 percent vs. 34.9% and 37.7% in November.
Total accumulated surplus for 2010 was USD 185.6 billion vs. USD 198.2 in full year 2009.
Sharp decline in trade balance surplus and both export and import growth confirm what I already anticipated on freight rates. What is even worse there’s no recovery in freight rates in January (jet).
U.S. Freight Carloads Weekly – January 9, 2011
U.S. railroads originated 240,073 carloads, up 5.6% compared with the same week in 2010 and down 9.9% compared with 5-year average. Week over week change was -6.3%.
Again: Looks like railroad traffic is weakening more than warranted by seasonal effects.
Tanker Weekly – January 9, 2011
Baltic Dirty Tanker Index fell 25.3% in last two weeks; Baltic Clean Tanker Index fell 18.4% in the same period.
To repeat: Large oversupply of ships in the Gulf. Somewhat strange that cost of shipping fell so much during crude oil price rally.
Baltic Dry Index At 1519, Down 1.6%
Down 1.6%.
U.S. Natural Gas Weekly – January 6, 2011
Working gas in storage fell 135 Bcf from previous week. The consensus was at 130 Bcf.
Although the draw was above consensus, it’s a disappointment overall as storage level is only 21 Bcf lower than same time year ago. In short – a replay of last’s year oversupply.
Baltic Dry Index At 1544, Down 4.8%
Yes…Queensland commodity exports are frozen because of floods, but nevertheless this is looking quite ugly.
U.S. Petroleum Weekly – January 6, 2011
Crude oil stocks fell 4.2 million barrels; Gasoline stocks rose 3.3 million barrels; Distillate stocks increased 1.4 million barrels; Propane/propylene stocks were down 2.7 million barrels; Other oils stocks fell 3.4 million barrels; Total crude oil and petroleum stocks were 6.3 million barrels lower for the week.
Refinery utilization rose 0.2% to 88.0%.
Crude oil and petroleum product net imports fell 1.3 million barrels to 7.9 million barrels.
Demand is mostly unchanged; stocks are falling on increased exports and smaller imports.
Going into new year crude oil stocks will probably rise on refiner restocking.
Baltic Dry Index At 1693, Down 4.3%
Baltic Dry Index fell 4.3% today while Queensland floods worsened.