at the peak of peak, around november 2007, the coal traders were terrified as morgan stanley signed for real bulker ships at us$ 125,000 per day on long term charter as part of its machinery for paper trade of bulk ships - they were playing some sort of game
we were puzzled and could not figure out what, other than gold, platinum, and palladium, one could ship in 65k ton tranches that could justify 125k/day charter rate for 5 days waiting, 1 day loading, 12 days sailing, 3 days waiting, and 1 day unloading (2,750,000 total charter, at 42/ton shipping load to whatever the cargo)
then the paper trade collapsed
at the dismal low, we signed for bulkers at bankrupting rate of $1,250/day, and kept it for an extra day to hold party for customer's staff because it was cheaper than a hotel venue
the financial houses added nothing to productivity of coal supply and distribution, but did cost a lot of people to eat very expensive rice, burn costly coal, melt dear iron, etc etc
and the price signals encouraged many to commit to buy new ships, steel for such ships, factories to build ships, etc etc
they, the financial houses, must be ... to be polite ... stopped |
