Main sea freight index at Baltic Exchange falls below 600 points

UNITED STATES May 11 2016 2:22 PM

LONDON (Scrap Register): The main sea freight index at Baltic Exchange for ships carrying dry bulk commodities fell below to 600 points on Tuesday due to lower cape, panamax and supremax 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, down by another 22 point to 594 points on Tuesday.

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.

Since the BDI has staged a significant recovery. Factors that have been driving the gains include the belief that the sell-off was overdone, an increase in demand, and a decrease in ship supply due to some ship scrapping.