Trading and membership statistics - April 2006

Trading and membership statistics – April 2006

A total of 600 trades were done via Imarex during April 2006, up 79% on the same period in 2005 and 15% above the monthly average number of trades during 2005. The nominal values of all trades done via Imarex in April 2006 was USD 244.6 million and increase of 7.5% compared to April 2005. The volumes traded were 10 707 lots (1 lot= 1000 tonnes or 1 day of time charter) down 6% compared to April last year.

Tanker derivatives: 

The chartering market for large crude oil tankers remained flat at low levels during April, whist smaller clean product carriers saw rates nearly double on the Asian TC4 route.

Imarex handled a total of 522 tanker derivative transactions during April. This is a 67% increase on April 2005 and 10% above the average monthly transaction numbers during 2005.

A total of 7 410 lots (7.4 million tonnes) were traded via Imarex, up 1% compared to 7 310 lots in the same period last year. The value of tanker transactions at Imarex rose 8% to USD 132.2 million.

Dry bulk derivatives:

Imarex is actively driving down the average contract volume per dry bulk transaction in order to further boost the number of transactions and bring new principals to the market.

The average number of lots per transaction was down 55% to 75 compared to 170 in the same period last year. The nominal transaction value of dry bulk derivatives traded at Imarex in March was USD 48 million down 54% compared to April 2005.

The total number of transactions concluded was 41. The number of dry bulk contracts traded during April 2006 was 3 101 (equivalent to 3 101 days of time charter). This is a decrease of 24% on the same period last year. 

Bunker fuel oil derivatives: 

Trading in bunker fuel oil derivatives has increased month on month since start in December 2005 but took a break from the strong growth during April 2006. The total number of fuel oil derivative transactions in March was 37, down from 67 in March.

A total of 196 850 tonnes were traded compared to 586 000 tonnes in March. The total nominal value of bunker fuel oil contracts traded at Imarex in March was USD 64 million down from USD 181 million in March.

The average number of lots per transaction was down 4 to 5 and the average transaction size fell by USD1 million to USD 1.7 million. 

New trading and clearing members:

Imarex is proud to welcome the following new members to the market:

• Clarksons Hedge Fund Limited
• Wilhelmsen Maritime Services AS
• Macquarie Bank Limited

Please see the attached report for full details:

• IMAREX trading and membership stats for April 2006

  Imarex_Stats_APRIL_2006.pdf 118.55 kB

For more information please contact:

• Tom Even Mortensen, Managing Director     Tel: +47 2389 4222 
• Arild Jæger, Chief Financial Officer              Tel: +47 2389 4211 
• Mikal Bøe, Director of Information Services   Tel: +47 2389 4227