Main sea freight index at Baltic Exchange continues to advance to 983 points

UNITED KINGDOM January 06 2017 1:25 PM

LONDON (Scrap Register): The main sea freight index at Baltic Exchange for ships carrying dry bulk commodities continued to advance on Thursday mainly due to stronger cape and panamax 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, gained by another 14 points to 983 points on Thursday.

Capesizes have had a bullish start this year on both physical and paper demand, while both panamax and supramax demand is also firmer. 

Strong physical demand is surprising this time of year when a seasonal slowdown in building in the Northern Hemisphere generally translates into lower demand for raw materials.