45 last week on the Azov market has passed without major changes. Freight rates were stagnant, due to low activity of Traders, which was balanced a small amount of open tonnage. Russian wheat is higher quality and respectively more expensive than competitors ' offers, deals on it is small, and from the sea of Azov is mainly driven bran, sunflower seeds, peas and corn.
The high price of Russian wheat had a negative impact on shipment volumes and RAID the Caucasus. The main flow of export wheat comes from deep-water Novorossiysk in batches of 20-50 thousand tons. Including delivery to the port, it is much cheaper than the ship fires with the sea of Azov. The lack of demand for tonnage with Charterers working on handling in the Caucasus, pulling the market down. It is expected that in the near future, producers and Traders on the domestic market will be forced to decline to increase the competitiveness of the FOB price of Russian wheat on the world market.
Due to the shortage rossofuoco fleet from the river in anticipation of the closing of navigation increased the demand on coastal fleet. Exporters tend to export the remaining volumes under the contracts to the ports of Astrakhan, Azov or Rostov, with subsequent transshipment to vessels of type "river – sea". Shipowners are the last remains of fixout ships on the spot market and prefer short flights in the black sea Turkey and Marmara. A ton of wheat on the basis of Rostov-Samsun in the reporting week left at $20, and a strong fall in interest rates before the New year should not be expected because of the imminent introduction of the ice restrictions and fees.
Caspian market continues to grow. The main growth drivers is the high demand for tonnage from the river before the closing of navigation, as well as news that Russia and Iran signed a Memorandum on deliveries of wheat under government contracts. On the background of this news, many Charterers are becoming more active to behave at the conclusion of the winter contracts, as a result, the Navy was in an even greater deficit than was. A ton of corn when sending from Astrakhan fixeda at around $40, from Volgograd – about $53.
The market has dramatically raised the demand in tonnage for shipments of Kazakh wheat. In the past local senders used under such contracts are mostly deep-drawing ships with the Iranian flag. However, this year, many senders because of U.S. sanctions imposed on Iran, refused to load ships under the flag of this country. Thus, Kazakh cargo of grain will compete with the Russian fleet with the Russian flag, raising the stakes in the region.