LNG

Action has picked up in the LNG market, with several cargoes and tenders coming into play from the Atlantic, ships being taken on subs or in firm discussions has done something to hush the negative rhetoric that has been surrounding the LNG spot market since the beginning of the year.

Rates for the 174cbm ship were flat with BLNG1 Aus-Japan gaining a small amount to finish up at $56,051, while BLNG2 US-Cont finished $53,135 and the biggest mover of the week BLNG3 US-Japan gained $4126 to finish at $53,270. The 160cbm vessel moved less overall compared to the larger ship and except for BLNG2 was positive overall. BLNG1 on the 160cbm finished $37,097, while US-Cont BLNG2 fell by $138 to a close of $38,980. BLNG3g on the 160cbm finished very flat at $39,561 but the consensus from brokers is that the back of the worst of it has now been broken.

Period has picked up steam, in discussions if not in rates, while both one-year and three-year terms were unchanged at $74,067 and $88,000 respectively the six-month charter discussions were optimistic, rates rising only $100 but to a close of $52,800 which hints at more action in the summer to come.

LPG

It is a nice change to be able to change the tone of the LPG market report this week, finally with greater interest with cargoes working firm several ships have been fixed away and rates reacted positively. For the BLPG1 Ras Tanura-Chiba a rise of $17.143 from year lows means we published at $48.714, an increase of over $16,000 TCE earnings to a daily equivalent of $27,393.

The improvement of the ARB has helped bolster the US market and across the Atlantic BLPG2 Houston-Flushing gained a modest $9.6 to finish with a published value of $47 while TCE earnings went up to a close of $38,382. The biggest improvement overall came from BLPG3 Houston-Chiba where a $20.572 increase meant a final published value of $92.286 this gives a TCE daily equivalent of $31,269.

One thing to note is that while the markets overall have risen quite well, they did so early on in the week, rates have begun to stagnate while many participants of the market are readying for the Lunar New Year, this could push rates down again but brokers are relatively optimistic about market stability for now.