CMB Sees Promise for the Dry Bulk Industry

Mineral Nippon, image: CMB

For CMB, the Belgian dry bulk shipowner, “The outlook for 2014 and 2015 looks promising,” they note to their 3rd quarter earnings report today.

It’s been an uphill battle though for Bocimar, CMB’s dry bulk division. In the first half of 2013, Bocimar had negative net earnings of 9.7 million, yet turned in around in the 3rd quarter with a gain of 5.375 million.

CMB attributes the earnings growth to the improvement of spot charter rates over the past quarter, in particular Capesize rates which increased from USD 15,000 per day in early July to more than USD 40,000 per day by the end of September.

“Newbuilding capacity and planned newbuilding deliveries for the next two years are known and are the lowest for five years,” note Bocimar. They predict “that the forecast growth in seaborne trade mainly from iron ore will persist and have a positive effect on the dry bulk market.”

The optimism isn’t exclusively held by CMB either.

In a Bloomberg report yesterday by Juan Pablo Spinetto, he notes that Brazil’s Vale SA is looking to boost output capacity of iron ore by 50 percent to 450 million metric tons by 2018 via a $34 billion investment.

Looking for a not-so-rosy picture of the dry bulk sector, read Jay Goodgal’s editorial: Dry Bulk Sector Recovery Inconceivable by 2015

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