THE rise of charter rates for post-panamax and panamax tonnage continued over the last week, although activity was slowed down by a number of holidays.

The deal for the 2002-built, 5,928 teu APL Hong Kong owned by Japanese Shoei Kisen Kaisha stood out clearly from the fixtures done in the segment during the past week. APL extended the charter contract for the vessel by three years at a daily rate of $19,750 for periods of up to 12 months.

This is, however, significantly below the $22,000 per day that Maersk is paying for three 5,500 teu vessels taken in a recent deal.

But a fresh deal in the panamax segment may set a new benchmark. The 2009-built, 4,380 teu Moranto, managed by German owner Schiffahrtskontor Tom Wörden, has been taken by Maersk Line at $12,000 per day for a period of around three to six months.

This is a clear improvement over recent deals for panamax vessels.

Two weeks ago, the Danish container line took three vessels of the same size, the Rosa, Lana (former Lania) and Stadt Coburg at $8,975 per day for a flexible period of up to six months.

There was still firm interest by charterers in panamax ships, one broker said. He added, however, that negotiations over these vessels would take longer than for smaller ships, a fact that was influencing the number of actual fixtures.

However, despite recent gains in the segment, charter rates are still too low for many owners to cover full debt service and their land-based operations.

German brokers noted that the panamax rate level was still only half of what was achieved a year ago.

In the smaller segments, rates have remained mostly flat. The expected spill-over of rate gains from the larger sizes has not yet happened.

However, one British broker observed rising interest from charterers in 3,500 teu vessels, although oversupply of tonnage would still prevent any significant rate increase.

The New ConTex charter rate assessment index rose by three points over last week to 403 points. This development was mainly driven by the panamax class.

In addition, 1,100 teu vessels were also slowly improving while the middle-sized segments of 1,700 teu, 2,500 teu and 2,700 teu-2,800 teu did not show much activity.

One 2,800 teu vessel, the 2003-built Cardonia, owned by a KG fund and managed by Ahrenkiel, even fell below the $7,000 mark again. It was taken by operator KMTC for a period of six months at $6,900 per day.

On the other hand, fuel efficient vessels are always able to gain a premium. This was reflected by Daesun-type 2007-built, 1,049 teu Marcliff being chartered for $8,000 per day for six months to SITC.

At the same time, industry observers have started to scrutinise the consensus among container lines active on the Far East to Europe trade. Additional capacity is brought onto the trade by carriers, which could hamper attempts to increase freight rates.

However, so far, lines have been relatively successful in their move to restore rates. A number of carriers led by Hapag-Lloyd have just announced a fresh round of rate hikes to become effective on June 1. Mediterranean Shipping Co and NYK have followed the German line’s move to push up rates with announcements to lift the price per teu by $250 to $350.

Tramp owners are hoping that lines will be able to make these rate increases stick, as they expecting that a better income for carriers will also leak through to the charter market.