Main sea freight index at Baltic Exchange declines further to 587 points

UNITED KINGDOM June 20 2016 3:37 PM

LONDON (Scrap Register): The main sea freight index at Baltic Exchange for ships carrying dry bulk commodities declined further on Friday as lower demand for capesize vessels.

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 11 points to 587 points on Friday.

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.