Week 1, 2019 (Jan.2-Jan.4), the trend of the International Grain Future Freight (IGF) reported the Panamax forward freight rate of ECSA (East Coast of South America)-Tianjin route (soybean) from March to May in 2019 is shown in the chart below.

The weather in parts of South America was getting worse, which threatened the prospects of soybean yield. Some institutes lowered the anticipated statistic of soybean yield due to the drought in the middle area of Brazil affected the growing of soybean. The soybean planting in Argentina had been completed 90%, but the excessive rainfall slowed down the work progress in the fields, and the normal growth of soybean might be affected if the wet weather was sustained till next week.

In terms of the shipping market, the future freight sustained downtrend and suffered consecutive decline from Jan.2-Jan.4 (Wed.-Fri.), and it eventually closed at $33.56/ton, 2.19% lower than that on Dec.21 (the last release day of Week 51).