Main sea freight index at Baltic Exchange stays above 400 points

UNITED KINGDOM March 28 2016 4:08 PM     

LONDON (Scrap Register): The main sea freight index at  Baltic Exchange for ships carrying dry bulk commodities continued to advance and  stay above 400 points mark on Wednesday due to the higher cape, supramax and  panamax rates.

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, up further  by 5 points to 408 points on Wednesday.

The index fell almost every day  in 2016 until February 11, when it set a record low of 290. Since then, the  index has made a solid recovery but now that appears to be losing steam.  

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.