UNITED KINGDOM August 11 2016 4:20 PM

LONDON (Scrap Register): The main sea freight index at Baltic Exchange for ships carrying dry bulk commodities gained on Wednesday as higher cape, panamax and supramax rates.

The Baltic Dry Index advanced, after a fairly large sell-off in the past few weeks as demand to ship raw materials declined as the summer season starts to wrap up.

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, advanced by 7 points to 638 points on Wednesday.

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.