LONDON (Scrap Register): The main sea freight index at Baltic Exchange for ships carrying dry bulk commodities continued to decline to 956 points on Friday driven by lower 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, dropped by another 01 point to 956 points on Friday.
The BDI index is a composite of four sub-indices that measure different sizes of ships (dry bulk carriers) classified on the basis of their total cargo capacity, namely Capesize, Panamax, Handysize and Supramax. Compiled by the London-based Baltic Exchange, the index is based on a daily survey of agents all over the world.
The BDI hit a temporary peak on May 20, 2008, when the index hit 11,793 while the lowest level ever reached was in February last year, when the index dropped to 290 points. 
Since then, the index kept rising steadily until it again dropped to 735 points in February 2017. Although it has recovered since then hitting 1,333 points on March, 28, it has been falling for the past one month.