The dry bulk sector ended the week in relative calm as key markets in Asia celebrated the Lunar New Year but saw a flurry of fixture activity in the past few days.

The Baltic Exchange’s capesize 5TC, a spot-rate average across five key routes, improved just 15.5% over the week to reach $10,302 per day on Friday.

In a sector that usually sees large day-to-day swings, that was seen as a “sideways” move.