Ore-Cargo Shortfall Seen Slowing Ship Market After Holidays End

Feb. 18 (Bloomberg) -- A shortage of Brazilian iron ore available for export to China amid higher prices for the steelmaking raw material curbed cargoes after Lunar New Year holidays ended in Asia, RS Platou Markets AS said.

Coal cargoes also were limited as a strike affected about 36 percent of production in Colombia, which ships an estimated 10 percent of the fuel used for power stations, the Oslo-based investment bank said by e-mail.

About 90 percent of the 1.1 billion metric tons of iron ore to be transported by sea this year will travel on Capesize vessels, the biggest, according to estimates from London-based shipbrokers Clarkson Plc and ICAP Shipping International Ltd.

--Editors: Dan Weeks, Nicholas Larkin.