LONDON (Bloomberg) Rates for "panamaxes," the largest coal and iron-ore carriers to pass through the Panama Canal, may jump about 55 percent as Japan buys more raw materials to generate power and rebuild from its disaster.
Forward freight agreements, traded by brokers and used to hedge or bet on future transport costs, will rise to $22,000 a day for the fourth quarter, from $14,175 Wednesday, said Philippe Van den Abeele, the managing director of Castalia Fund Management (U.K.) Ltd., a London-based adviser to a hedge fund trading shipping derivatives. His forecast in February for a rally in rates was followed by an almost doubling in charges.
Japan, the biggest importer of coal and second-largest buyer of iron ore after China, estimates that the historic temblor and tsunami on March 11 caused as much as $309 billion of damage.