Baltic Dry Index Breaks 700

The Baltic Dry Index’s hit its 2016 record high back in April at 715 points. Photo: Shutterstock/Volodymyr Kyrylyuk

July 8 (Reuters) – The Baltic Exchange’s main sea freight index, which tracks rates for ships carrying dry bulk commodities, rose further on Friday due to strong demand for panamax vessels.

The overall index, which factors in rates for capesize, panamax, supramax and handysize shipping vessels, was up 4 points, or 0.57 percent, at 703 points.

The capesize index was down 6 points, or 0.6 percent, at 1,002 points.

Average daily earnings for capesizes, which typically transport 150,000-tonne cargo such as iron ore and coal, fell $39 to $7,149.

The panamax index was up 13 points, or 1.67 percent, at 792 points.

Average daily earnings for panamaxes, which usually carry coal or grain cargo of about 60,000-70,000 tonnes, increased $96 to $6,327.

Among smaller vessels, the supramax index rose 3 points to 647 points and the handysize index gained 2 points to 354 points. (Reporting by Harshith Aranya in Bengaluru; Editing by Kirti Pandey)

(c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2016.

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