Main sea freight index at Baltic Exchange plunge further to 1170 points

UNITED KINGDOM April 25 2017 1:23 PM
 
LONDON (Scrap Register): The main sea freight index at Baltic Exchange for ships carrying dry bulk commodities plunged further to 1170 points on Monday mainly due to a decline in 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, fell by another 25 points to 1170 points on Monday.

The BDI rallied this spring amid restocking demand from China, but it has recently run into some resistance. Last Thursday was a particularly challenging session for capesize ships, whose hire rates plunged by 6.5% to reach 1,991 points – a month low. But, the weakness in the BDI was not solely attributed to capesize rates.