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

The Drewry Multipurpose Time Charter Index increased to $8,934 per day in June, representing a rise of 7.1% compared to the 4.3% rise seen in the previous month. Drewry’s Index is up 37% since the start of the year and 58% since June 2020. Drewry expects the index to rise a further 5.2% in July to reach $9,400 per day.

Rates across all sectors, including the smaller shortsea vessels, continued to rise over June as strong demand outstripped limited supply. The pent-up demand for manufactured goods and their raw materials, coupled with continued capacity constraints in both the container and bulk carrier sectors, has produced an ever expanding call for MPV tonnage.

This continued demand uplift is expected to last through 3Q21, although we do think it likely that the rate of growth will slow. For the short-term forecast we see little to suggest any sudden change in market direction, particularly as most carriers continue to advise that they are fully booked for two months hence. However there is a difference between the two sectors of the fleet. The smaller shortsea market remains firm but rate growth has slowed to below 2% month-on-month, whereas the larger more heavylift capable tonnage is reporting rates some 10% above last done.

Related Research: Multipurpose Shipping Sector

For access to the latest charter rates and forecasts across a range of multipurpose vessel types subscribe to Drewry’s Multipurpose Forecaster. Published quarterly it provides 5-year forecasts and market updates for the global Breakbulk and Heavy Lift shipping markets, together with supplementary monthly updates of the latest market developments, including charter rates and asset values.