Stocks that Float: TANKERS & DRY BULK SHIPPERS

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Commodity Shipping Index Advances the Most Since at Least 1985

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601085&sid=ah6n4sxikADs&refer=news

By Alistair Holloway and Alaric Nightingale

Feb. 4 (Bloomberg) -- The Baltic Dry Index, a measure of shipping costs for commodities, rose the most since at least 1985 in London as the number of idled capesizes fell to almost zero, indicating strengthening demand for iron ore.

Capesize rates have risen more than ninefold from a record low of $2,316 a day on Dec. 2. Steelmakers may be replenishing stocks in China after they fell 22 percent by mid-January from a record in September. Producers abroad, faced with an oversupply of iron ore, may also be shipping ore to China for storage.

“This has been the first day of the year when the buzz has been back,” Michael Gaylard, strategic director at Freight Investor Services Ltd., a shipping-derivatives broker, said by phone from London. “There’s no doubt that enquiry for physical tonnage is consistent and strong.”

Shipping rates collapsed last year as demand slumped for steelmaking raw materials and Japan, the U.S. and Europe grappled with their first simultaneous recessions since World War II. The steel industry accounts for almost half of all dry-bulk cargo at sea, according to shipping line Golden Ocean Ltd.

The Baltic Dry Index advanced 168 points, or 15 percent, to 1,316 points. The gauge’s 70 percent gain in 2009 is its best start to the year since at least 1986. It fell as low as 663 points on Dec. 5, the lowest since 1986, and rose to a record 11,793 points on May 20.

Daily rates for capesizes rose 17 percent to $21,810 a day, the highest since October. Smaller panamax ships, the largest to fit through the locks of the Panama Canal, increased 14 percent to $8,005 a day. Daily operating costs are $6,500 for capesizes and $5,000 for panamaxes, according to Erik Nikolai Stavseth, an analyst with shipbroker Lorentzen & Stemoco in Oslo. Both ships compete to haul coal and iron ore.

Idled Capesizes

There are almost no idled capesizes, Oslo-based Fearnley Fonds ASA analyst Rikard Vabo said. As much as a quarter of the world capesize fleet of about 800 ships was probably idled by owners two months ago in response to plunging rates.

BHP Billiton Ltd., the world’s third-largest producer of iron ore, said Chinese steelmakers are returning to the iron ore market after inventories were used up.

“You are starting to see the underlying demand of the Chinese economy,” Chief Executive Officer Marius Kloppers told journalists today. “We have seen in the steel business in China that the de-stocking cycle is almost complete and that means people are coming back into the market and buying.”

China announced in November a 4-trillion yuan ($586 billion) economic stimulus package running through 2010. That may boost infrastructure projects and steel demand.

Capesize forward freight agreements, derivatives used by traders to bet on future shipping rates, rose 14 percent to $30,375 a day for the second quarter. Panamax futures jumped 12 percent to $16,375 for the same period. The data are from Oslo- based broker Imarex NOS ASA.

Steel stocks gained, with all nine members of the Bloomberg Europe Steel Index trading higher, led by ArcelorMittal. The 13 members of the Bloomberg Metal and Mining Index also advanced, led by Kazakhmys Plc.