Main sea freight index at Baltic Exchange continues to fall to 849 points

UNITED KINGDOM October 21 2016 3:01 PM

LONDON (Scrap Register): The main sea freight index at Baltic Exchange for ships carrying dry bulk commodities continued to fall on Thursday, with mixed outlooks on shipping demand for key raw materials through the end of fall.

The Baltic Dry Index, which provides an assessment of the price of moving the major raw materials – such as coal, iron ore and grain – by sea by taking in 23 shipping routes measured on a time charter basis, down by another 23 points to 849 points on Thursday.

The Baltic Dry Index accelerated its descent this week, as expected, but with the downside gaining extra impetus there is concern that the best is over for the year. 

While the BDI typically sees its price peak in the October-December period, it is possible that the highs reached in September will not be rescaled. Even worse, once winter hits it is typical for the BDI to experience significant downside.