Main sea freight index at Baltic Exchange advances to above 650 points

UNITED KINGDOM August 12 2016 3:29 PM

LONDON (Scrap Register): The main sea freight index at Baltic Exchange for ships carrying dry bulk commodities advanced to above 650 points on Thursday boosted by 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, advanced further by 15 points to 653 points on Thursday.

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 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.