Main sea freight index at Baltic Exchange slips to 392 points

UNITED KINGDOM March 18 2016 1:35 PM     

LONDON (Scrap Register): The main  sea freight index at Baltic Exchange for ships carrying dry bulk commodities has  slipped on Thursday as analyst sees no real recovery until the year  2018.

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 1 points  to 392 points on Thursday.

The BDI held up better in that market than it  is now, as demand from China for raw materials as the country embarked upon some  strategic stockpiling buoyed the index even as equities around the globe  collapsed.

The index is based on a daily survey of agents all over the  world. Baltic Dry hit a temporary peak on May 20, 2008, when the index hit  11,793. The lowest level ever reached was on February 10 2016, when the index  plummeted to 290 points.