Main sea freight index at Baltic Exchange drops for the first time in a week

UNITED KINGDOM July 20 2016 3:17 PM     

LONDON (Scrap Register): The main  sea freight index at Baltic Exchange for ships carrying dry bulk commodities  dropped on Tuesday for the first time in a week mainly due to strong cape,  panamax and supramax 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 02 points to 746 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.