According to the Baltic Exchange’s Weekly Market Roundups published on April 21, 2023,
LNG
The spot LNG Market remains flat. Although some spot activity has taken place, there are few requirements and the position list is populated mainly by sublets. Charterers and traders are trying to optimise their usage of extra tonnage while their own programs remain light. This means the list is tighter than it first appears as ships can be taken off quickly into own program. Having a relatively warm spring so far has meant storage and usage are well balanced. This has put more pressure on spot demand as it decreases the need for un-programmed movement. As always, focus has been on period with people looking out to the end of the year to take coverage for what could potentially be another bumper season. Rates themselves barely saw any movement with an Aus-Japan run closing at $54,021 - a drop of nearly $2500. Meanwhile, a US-Cont rose $1199 to finish at $42,123. A lower fall for US-East gave the index a publication of $47,976 at the end of the week.
LPG
The LPG market has lost some momentum this last week. Rates across all the three routes have moved very little with BLPG2 shifting only $0.4 over the whole course of the week. Out in the East for BLPG1 the route gained marginal ground of just over half a dollar. But with a tight position list for first half of May there has still been resistance from charterers to begin paying up, even though numerous cargoes have been reported. The TCE earnings for a VLGC on a Ras Tanura-Chiba run remains flat at about $60,895 per day round voyage daily return. For Houston-Flushing and Houston-Chiba very little movement has done nothing to stymie any gains or losses on freight with rates closing at $76, and $127.286 respectively. This has meant there have been slight falls in TCE earnings with BLPG2 to $80,696, and BLPG3 to $59,513 at the end of the week. There was a split of opinion at the close of the week regarding BLPG3 where some participants felt that the publication of $127.286 (a loss of $1.714 on the week) was not as much of a correction as required and a further fall in freight could be expected.
