Drewry: Multipurpose Time Charter Index moving higher

LONDON : The Drewry Multipurpose Time Charter Index tracks one-year period charter rates across a basket of vessel types and sizes and forecasts the market movement over the coming month. The vessel types include breakbulk and project cargo ships.

The Drewry Multipurpose Time Charter Index is above our forecasted value for January of $8,821 pd, and it is now at $8,834 pd. The ongoing Red sea situation continues to bring increased utilisation, while smaller vessels, are also seeing a seasonal boost.

Our overall expectation is for the index to have a further uptick in March, but it is not expected to be at the same level as previous months. Drewry’s Multipurpose Time Charter Index is expected to increase by 0.2% in March, reaching $8,853pd. This would result in a decline of 3.5% since March 2023.