Chinese Demand Seen by Pareto Boosting Dry Bulk Shipping Rates

Chinese demand for dry bulk imports, including iron ore and coal, is expected to lift freight rates from July onwards, according to Pareto Securities AS, an Oslo-based investment bank. 
Following are comments by Nicolai Hansteen, chief economist at Pareto Shipping, a unit of Pareto Securities AS, who spoke at the third Scandinavian Shipping and Ship Finance Conference in Copenhagen.
“We are fundamentally optimistic on dry bulk, encouraged by Chinese dry-bulk import growth,” Hansteen said. “The second quarter is going to be a very weak quarter, but we expect to see a recovery in freight rates in the second half of this year, driven by Chinese imports.” 
On dry-bulk imports into China: 
“China now accounts for 40 percent of dry-bulk imports. Dry-bulk import volumes will increase by 500 million metric tons by 2016. Chinese iron-ore imports will reach 1 billion tons by 2015. China will import more than 40 million tons of coking coal in 2013. Steam coal imports will exceed 220 million tons this year.” 
On the dry-bulk market and fleet: 
“The dry-bulk market will grow 6 percent annually between 2013 and 2016. The orderbook for new dry-bulk vessels stands at 20 percent of the fleet. Ten percent of the dry-bulk fleet is older than 21 years.” 
Source: Bloomberg