Baltic Dry Index falls further to 822 points

UNITED KINGDOM July 10 2017 12:46 PM

LONDON (Scrap Register): The main sea freight index at Baltic Exchange for ships carrying dry bulk commodities fell further to 822 points on Friday 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, dropped by another 07 points to 822 points on Friday.

The demand for capesize ships tends to decline during the summer. This is because capesize boats transport primarily iron ore and coal, two commodities that are very seasonal with the summer being their low demand period. 

While optimism over the fall restocking period typically acts as a balancing factor for capesize rates, this year it is unknown what the demand picture will shape up like come fall.