The Baltic Exchange’s dry bulk sea freight index, which measures shipping rates for vessels transporting dry bulk commodities, inched lower on Tuesday due to weaker demand for capesize vessels.
The main index, which monitors rates for capesize, panamax and supramax shipping vessels, lost 7 points, or 0.5%, to 1,340.
The capesize index was down 25 points, or 1%, at 1,863.
Average daily earnings for capesize vessels, which typically transport 150,000-ton cargoes such as iron ore and coal, fell $202 to $15,454.
“We saw a lot of iron ore exports from West Australia to China in the past week (which mostly comprised) inventory delayed due to bad weather interruptions in the early months of the year,” said Yiannis Parganas, head of Intermodal’s research department.
“Now that most of the inventory has been sold and the market is stabilising, so we see the capesize index decreasing.”
Iron ore futures prices inched up amid resilient near-term demand for the steelmaking ingredient, though gains were limited by subdued economic data from top consumer China.
The panamax index ticked up 1 point, or 0.1%, to 1,294.
Average daily earnings for panamax vessels, which usually carry 60,000-70,000 tons of coal or grain, gained $11 to $11,646.
Among smaller vessels, the supramax index was up 2 points at 982. Source: Reuters
