The Baltic and international maritime conference (BIMCO) recently said that the year 2018 is the year when the base of the dry bulk shipping industry is facing an improved balance.

According to BIMCO, the market is expected to be the slowest for the fleet since 1999, and the bulk of the industry is expected to improve as demand stabilizes.

In January, bulk carriers delivered 4.8 million deadweight tons, the highest level in 10 months. At the same time, the disassembly capacity of the bulk carrier is 700,000 tons, so there is a lot of delivery capacity in the market. Despite the slowdown, global shipowners and investors have signed more new orders at Asian yards.

BIMCO said the market had to be cautious in the first quarter of this year as demand for seasonal goods fell. In terms of price, most of the time in the second half of 2017 bulk shipping market showing a good development trend, and this growth has been in peak on December 12, 2017, when capesize bulk carrier has the highest daily average rents for $30475.

As of the end of January 2018, the freight rates of all types of bulk carriers were at break-even level, but they did not return to profit. Although clarkson research CRSL data shows that China's import volume has increased significantly, the overall shipping demand for the market in 2017 has increased by 5.1%. But BIMCO believes this strong demand will not happen again in 2018.

BIMCO said the forecast for overall demand growth for the industry in 2018 would be about 2 to 3 percent, including many uncertainties. This is not just a matter of transport, but also the transport distance.

BIMCO added that the bulk market was expected to improve as the fleet grew by 1.4 per cent.