Baltic Dry Index Logs Best Month in Two Years

The Baltic Exchange's main sea freight index, tracking rates for ships ferrying dry bulk commodities, rose on Friday and logged its best month in 2 years propelled by a corresponding rise in capesize and panamax demand.

The overall index, which factors in rates for capesize, panamax and supramax shipping vessels, snapped its four-session long streak of declines to gain 3 points to 1,760. It jumped about 82.4% for the month, its best since June 2020.

However, the main index registered a second straight quarterly dip, shedding 21.4%.

The capesize index also snapped a four-day long losing streak and added 1 point to 1,955. For the month, it soared 547%, logging its best performance since June 2020.

Average daily earnings for capesizes, which typically transport 150,000-tonne cargoes such as coal and steel-making ingredient iron ore used in construction, were up $12 at $16,214.

Capesizes still lost about 20% for the quarter, in part due to waning demand from top steel producer China amid COVID-19 lockdowns over the period.

Dalian and Singapore iron ore marked their second quarterly losses, despite some gains on Friday, as worries over a stringent zero-COVID policy and property sector jitters in China continued to dominate markets.

The panamax index rose 19 points, or about 1%, to 2,082. It rose 71% on its best month since September 2013.

However, it also saw its second straight quarterly decline of about 16.2%.

Average daily earnings for panamaxes, which usually carry coal or grain cargoes of about 60,000 to 70,000 tonnes, increased $175to $18,742.

The supramax index fell 11 points to 1,663.

(Reuters - Reporting by Harshit Verma; editing by Uttaresh.V)