SINGAPORE - Freight rates for capesize bulk carriers, which hit their highest level in nearly seven months last week, could remain stable next week on steady cargo volumes, ship brokers said. “There’s not likely to be a steep decrease in cargo volumes, which is why the market will stay around current levels,” a Shanghai-based capesize broker said on Thursday. “There’s still quite a lot of vessels (available for charter) but the market is relatively stable,” the broker said. Current rates are around $5.30 per tonne for a voyage from Australia to China and around $12.10-$12.20 per tonne from Brazil to China, the broker said. Owners were sending empty ships to Brazil on expectation rates from Brazil to Asia could rise if there was an increase in cargo volumes, a Singapore-based capesize ship broker said on Thursday. “If there’s an influx of Brazilian cargoes the market could continue to tighten,” the Singapore broker said. Charterers that have contracts of affreightment (COA) with ship owners are wary of pushing rates too low in case the ship owner defaults, the Shanghai ship broker said. Under a COA, the charterer usually agrees to charter a ship from the owner for a set period or specific number of voyages but negotiates the freight rate for each trip. While freight rates are above vessel operating costs, they are far from giving a return on equity, Norwegian ship broker Fearnley said in a note on Wednesday. Charter rates for the Western Australia-China route were around $5.20 per tonne on Wednesday, down from $5.80 per tonne last week which was the highest since Dec. 9. Rates for the Brazil-China route slipped to $12.27 per tonne on Wednesday, compared with $13.10 a week earlier which was the highest since Dec. 15. Rates for a panamax transpacific voyage rose to a near seven month high on Wednesday, climbing to $6,059 per day, up from $5,875 per day on the same day last week on buoyant cargo volumes. That was the highest level since Dec. 18. “Short term we expect continued activity and rates to keep fairly steady,” Fearnley said. Freight rates for smaller supramax vessels were being supported by good cargo volumes from Indonesia, Fearnley said. Supramax rates from China to India are around $10,000 per day, Fearnley said. The Baltic Exchange’s main sea freight index closed down 794 on Wednesday, against 829 last week.