Steady chartering activity in recent weeks has cut the list of available capesize bulk carriers, which is helping keep rates firm.

Meanwhile, the futures market continues to go from strength to strength after another busy day where most contracts closed at higher levels than on Friday.

The Baltic Exchange assessed the weighted time charter average rate of its five major capesize benchmarks (5TC) at $33,760 per day on Monday, up by $1,078 since Friday.