LONDON—Shipping rates for goods including coal, iron ore and grains will probably decline this week because of weaker demand from Chinese steelmakers and easing port congestion, Oslo-based shipbroker Fearnley Fonds ASA said.

The Baltic Dry index, a measure of dry-bulk haulage costs, rose 3.7 percent last week after falling a combined 36 percent in the previous four weeks. Average waiting times at Atlantic ports fell to 1.6 days last week from 1.9 days in the previous seven days, Fearnley said in a report.

“We expect a downward trend on spot rates,” Fearnley analyst Lars Erich Nilsen said by phone. There are “falling iron-ore prices, falling steel prices. Steel mills are not being run at full capacity in China.”

China, the world’s largest iron-ore consumer, curbed some steel output to cut pollution during last month’s Olympics and Paralympics that ended September 17. Chinese prices for hot-rolled coil, a benchmark steel product, have dropped 2.9 percent this month, curbing producers’ appetite for raw materials.

“When spot rates are going down, you expect FFAs to follow,” Nilsen said. FFAs, or forward freight agreements, are used by investors to bet on or hedge against future rates.

FFAs for fourth-quarter rental of so-called cape size vessels to carry as much as 180,000 metric tons of iron ore fell 6.7 percent to $83,000 a day in London, according to data from Oslo broker Imarex NOS ASA.

Rentals for smaller panamax vessels declined 4.6 percent to $46,250 a day, FFAs showed. (Bloomberg)

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Dry-bulk shipping likely to drop this week, says Fearnley Fonds

LONDON—Shipping rates for goods including coal, iron ore and grains will probably decline this week because of weaker demand from Chinese steelmakers and easing port congestion, Oslo-based shipbroker Fearnley Fonds ASA said.