Main sea freight index at Baltic Exchange slightly up to 712 points

UNITED KINGDOM September 02 2016 4:06 PM

LONDON (Scrap Register): The main sea freight index at Baltic Exchange for ships carrying dry bulk commodities edged up to 712 points on Thursday 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, up by 01 points to 712 points on Thursday.

The BDI’s price movement has been subdued this week as the summer holiday season is wrapping up, resulting in subdued demand to ship goods, but once we head into the fall an increase in demand is expected ahead of the winter season.

Countries, particularly China, will want to stock up on some raw materials ahead of winter. Coal import demand could be particularly robust as the country is cutting domestic production, but iron ore demand could decrease given that construction activity is typically lower in the winter. Through the fall, demand to ship soft commodities should also be price supportive for the BDI.