Shipping rates plunge on credit freeze

Commodity shipping rates plunged to the lowest in more than five years today as a lack of credit for trade left cargoes stranded and the global economic slowdown limited raw material demand.

Traders are finding it harder to get letters of credit that guarantee payments for goods, shipping executives said. Together with a slowdown in trade, that has contributed to this year’s 82 per cent drop in the Baltic Dry Index, a measure of shipping costs for grain, coal and other commodities. Rates are so low Zodiac Maritime Agencies Ltd, the line managed by Israel’s billionaire Ofer family, may idle 20 of its largest ships.

“Letters of credit and the credit lines for trade currently are frozen,” Khalid Hashim, managing director of Precious Shipping, Thailand’s second-largest shipping company, said in Singapore yesterday. “Nothing is moving because the trader doesn’t want to take the risk of putting cargo on the boat and finding that nobody can pay.”

The Baltic Dry Index fell 11 per cent today to 1,615, the lowest since February 2003. Rates for larger ships of the type Zodiac intends to idle fell 17 per cent today, taking this year’s plunge to 85 per cent, according to the London-based Baltic Exchange.

Crude oil, industrial metals and grains have all slumped since reaching records in July on concern the worst financial crisis since the 1930s will cause a global recession. The Standard & Poor’s Goldman Sachs Commodity Index has dropped 45 per cent from its all-time high of 890.28 on July 3.

Banks Leery: Banks are leery of financing commodities and shipping transactions. Rio Tinto Group, the world’s second-largest aluminum producer, may delay the planned sale of $10 billion of assets and Sterlite Industries (India) Ltd shelved its $2.6 billion purchase of Asarco LLC. Ship owners can’t find cash to finance the construction of new ships.

“Our customers are facing hard challenges,” Isabella Loh, chief executive officer of Shell Marine Products, a unit of Royal Dutch Shell Plc, said at a conference in Singapore today. “The credit crunch has affected liquidity and is having an impact on shipyards with cancellations and postponed orders, and expansion may be on hold.”

Precious Shipping took as long as 15 months to secure financing for the 18 vessels it has on order, Hashim said. American Shipping Co ASA can’t get financing for two shuttle tankers that are part of its program to build 12 vessels.

Timetable Review: Rio said today it’s reviewing its spending timetable and project costs. Sterlite, a unit of London-based Vedanta Resources Plc, told bankrupt US copper producer Asarco to cut its price by “hundreds of millions” of dollars.

“Acquirers will find it harder to source funds and even if they can source funds, they’ll have to pay more,” said Steve Robinson, a senior investment manager with Alleron Investment Management in Sydney, which manages A$1.2 billion ($839 million). “Given what’s happened with commodity markets, they may not find buyers prepared to pay a premium.”

Zodiac will instruct the captains of its capesize vessels, which typically carry iron ore and coal, to deliver their current cargoes and then weigh anchor, said two hedge fund managers who saw an e-mail from the company outlining the plan.

The credit crisis may prompt a wave of “consolidation” in the shipping industry, Clyde Michael Bandy, chief executive officer of Chemoil Energy Ltd., said at the conference in Singapore.