Baltic Dry Index drops further to below 950 points

LONDON (Scrap Register): The main sea freight index at Baltic Exchange for ships carrying dry bulk commodities dropped to below 950 points on Friday as cape, panamax and supramax indices continued to fall.
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 20 points to 946 points on Friday. 
According to market participants, the market is fundamentally improving and barring a severe disruption to the world economy, it should be plain sailing from the second quarter onwards.
Even though a winter slowdown is expected, analysts had hoped that the BDI could see some support from China’s demand for thermal coal during its winter peak demand season. 
China’s appetite for imported coal has grown this year as the country has cracked down on its domestic miners.