Company: CMDB
Filing Date: 2025-04-23
Form Type: 20FR12B/A
Source: 0001140361-25-015197
Chunk: 169

Company: Costamare Bulkers Holdings Ltd
Filing Date: 2025-04-23
Form: 20FR12B/A
Chunk 169
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 to overall liquidity.

A FFA is a cash settled contract for difference (CFD) between two counterparties requiring no physical delivery. FFAs are bought and sold for a specified volume at an agreed rate per tonne (on standardised trade routes), timecharter rate per day or freight market index, and a fixed price for settlement at an agreed future period. Positions are settled against various freight and charter rate assessments and market indices, notably those published by the Baltic Exchange, over the agreed future period.

Dry bulk shipping freight trading can take place both over the counter (OTC) or via exchange cleared contract with a number of exchanges offering clearing services, and can also involve brokers acting as intermediaries between buyers and sellers.

In the dry bulk shipping sector more broadly, the FFA market can also be used as a barometer of market forwards sentiment and expectations; the FFA market “forward curve”, which indicates prevailing pricing for FFA contracts across a range of future settlement dates, may show, for example, whether market players generally expect dry bulk freight and charter rates to increase, decrease or remain steady compared to current spot market levels.

#### The Dry Bulk Shipping Market Commercial Landscape
Dry Bulk Operational Overview

Dry bulk vessels can be operated and/or move cargo under a range of different commercial structures, from the spot (voyage) market to tripcharter and timecharter (period) agreements, as well as longer-term COAs. Ship owners and cargo interests are clearly key commercial players in the dry bulk markets, but other interests also play a key role, such as commodity traders, ship management companies and financial players like banks and leasing companies.

In the spot (voyage) market, a cargo interest or commodity trader will typically pay an agreed freight rate (usually expressed in dollars per tonne) to a ship owner in exchange for moving a defined cargo from one location to another. The ship owner retains operational control of the ship and is responsible for paying voyage costs such as fuel, canal and port charges, carbon costs, etc. as well as underlying operating costs such as crew, maintenance, administration, insurance etc. In some cases, a company other than the actual ship owner may be the operator, for instance, an operating company that has leased or chartered tonnage from a ship owner or financial institution.

In the tripcharter or timecharter (period) market, the charterer of a vessel pays the ship owner a daily rate for hire of the vessel and effectively assumes operational control of the vessel, becoming responsible for voyage costs