LONDON (Scrap Register): The main sea freight index at Baltic Exchange for ships carrying dry bulk commodities dropped to below 750 points on Monday mainly due to lower cape, panamax and supramax indices.
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 17 points to 735 points on Monday.
The BDI saw its highest value of the year on January 19 when it reached 952 points, but it has since retreated amid a pre-holiday and holiday slowdown in shipping activity.
While the week-long holiday in China is officially over, many factories remain closed and business activity is still ramping up. There is usually a post-Lunar New Year holiday restocking period which can boost the value of the BDI; however, this year there are different opinions into how much of a post-holiday Lunar New Year rally will occur.