Main sea freight index at Baltic Exchange falls to 919 points

UNITED KINGDOM July 03 2017 12:33 PM

LONDON (Scrap Register): The main sea freight index at Baltic Exchange for ships carrying dry bulk commodities fell to 919 points on Friday mainly due to lower 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, advanced by another 26 points to 929 points on Friday.

The BDI has been below 1000 points since mid-May, with the downside dominating as shipping activity slowed during the approach of summer. 

Finally, on June 21 the downside was snapped and the BDI started to trend higher. This rally gained impetus but stalled once the BDI hit 929 points.