Market volatility caused by IMO 2020 has boosted liquidity in forward freight agreement (FFA) trading, with shipowners and charterers seeking to mitigate financial risks and speculators finding opportunities to profit.

Based on the Baltic Exchange’s estimates, 1.29m lots were traded in the dry bulk FFA market in the year to 25 November — a year-on-year gain of almost 16%.

In the wet bulk FFA market, trade volume grew by nearly 53% year on year to 437,000 lots.