Main sea freight index at Baltic Exchange continues to drop to 604 points

UNITED KINGDOM June 16 2016 3:12 PM     

LONDON (Scrap Register): The main  sea freight index at Baltic Exchange for ships carrying dry bulk commodities  continued to drop on Wednesday mainly due to weaker demand for smaller vessels  and panamaxes, partially offset by higher demand for capesizes.

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 4 points to  604 points on Wednesday.

The Baltic Dry Index continued to trade in the  600-610 point range for the second week in a row, indicating that the market has  hit a balance point since rallying off of the all-time low it hit in  February.

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.