Freight market data can be broken down using the type of cargo it is to carry. The cargo can be ‘wet’ or ‘dry’ meaning it is either a liquid such as oil, or a solid such as coal. If it’s a liquid it can be ‘dirty’ meaning crude oil or ‘clean’ meaning refined oil products. Other parameters such as the time the route takes to complete or the maximum weight the ship will carry are fixed with regards to the trading activity.
ASSET TYPE & DESCRIPTION
TOTAL HISTORY
TIMELINESS
Dry Freight
Dry Freight contracts are traded for a number of routes and where the contract is a forward contract, there are multiple maturity dates.There are three different ship sizes:
The single route Capesize contracts that are actively traded are C4 (Tubarao to Baoshan), C7 (Bolivar to Rotterdam), C3 (Richards Bay to Rotterdam - also traded but not regularly).The ships for these routes are 150,000 dry weight tonnes (dwt). The single route Panamax contracts that are actively traded are P2A (US Gulf to Japan), P3A (Japan / S Korea to N Pac return), P4 (Far East to N Pac to Skaw - traded but not regularly).The ships for these routes are 74,000 dwt. TC contracts are traded, however single route Supramax contracts are no longer traded. The quoted prices are $ per day per ship.The periods traded are the first four monthly contracts and the next three calendar year contracts.
Average Route contracts (also called Time Charter or TC) are calculated routes that are comprised of several 'actual' routes. These are traded FFA contracts for the TC averages of each ship type. The quoted price is $ per day per ship. The Capesize TC average is the average of routes C8, C9, C10 and C11. The Panamax TC average is the average of routes P1A, P2A, P3A and P4. The Supramax TC average is the weighted average of routes S1A, S1B, S2, S3 and S4. The first two routes have half the weighting of the other routes so that the average = (S1A + S1B)/8 + S2/4 + S3/4 + S4/4.
Wet Freight
Through a partnership with ACM Shipping, GFI's wet freight desk currently serves over 250 institutions - and growing - worldwide. These will trade both electronically and by voice, thereby significantly enhancing their view of the freight market and enabling them to trade this market interactively. This hybrid model combining voice and online technology promotes liquidity through a combination of best available prices, execution and the efficiency of online trading.
The market is divided into two distinct areas – physical market and Forward Freight Agreements or FFAs. The physical market is the movement of actual tonnes of oil and its products from one location to another. A settlement figure is calculated from the average rates for each route. FFA market is a paper market where trades are settled against the underlying physical market.
GFI’s wet freight market data covers the FFA rates for a number of wet routes across the world. GFI/ACM currently intermediates 27 routes, with 14 of these being actively traded on a daily basis.
