UNITED KINGDOM June 07 2017 1:37 PM

LONDON (Scrap Register): The main sea freight index at Baltic Exchange for ships carrying dry bulk commodities declined further to 818 points on Tuesday driven by 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 20 points to 830 points on Friday.

A slip below 800 would put the BDI at its weakest price point since last February. One-year ago, the BDI was trading around 610 points and was already on a recovery rally after bottoming out in February. But, last year’s performance was atypical.

During the spring and summer of 2016 the BDI experienced a volatile recovery rally. Normally, during this period, the BDI falls due to lower seasonal shipping demand. A recovery then comes in the fall when winter restocking commences.