The capesize bulker market ended the week at its highest level in a month, thanks to consistently strong demand in the Pacific basin.

The Baltic Exchange’s capesize 5TC, a spot-rate average across five key routes, improved 15.8% over the past five trading days to $17,713 per day on Friday.

The upswing was driven primarily by steady iron-ore fixture activity on the C5 route from Australia to China, where the average freight rate posted a one-week gain of 14.3%