Baltic Dry Index advance further to 849 points

UNITED KINGDOM June 12 2017 1:17 PM

LONDON (Scrap Register): The main sea freight index at Baltic Exchange for ships carrying dry bulk commodities advanced further on Friday driven by higher cape, 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, gained by another 25 points to 849 points on Friday.

The turnaround in the BDI last week has resurrected hopes that the BDI will continue its anemic price recovery. The week, the BDI’s change in momentum came from increased hire rates for the larger BDI component ships.

Prior to the week’s turnaround, the BDI was on a consistent downtrend for weeks as shipping demand fell around the globe. While the descent was attributed to the typical, seasonal slowdown, the pullback occurred earlier in the year than usual. 

The early slowdown sparked concern that the BDI would sustain significant losses over the summer. The BDI fell as low as 818 points before turning higher. One-year ago, the BDI was trading around 610 points.