Main sea freight index at Baltic Exchange edges up on strong supramax rates

UNITED KINGDOM April 22 2016 3:30 PM

LONDON (Scrap Register): The main sea freight index at Baltic Exchange for ships carrying dry bulk commodities edged up on Thursday boosted by strong supramax prices.

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, edged up by 1 point to 670 points on Tuesday.

The spike in Baltic Dry Index (BDI) is expected to continue on the back of scrapping of vessels, which has pulled down the supply to some extent, and rise in front-haul due to the ongoing harvest season in South America. 

Baltic Dry Index has risen 67% in the past month to above-670 level and is expected to touch 900-levels by May-end. The index was below 300 points barely two months ago.