Saturday 13 July 2013

Volatile shipping market shows signs of recovery




It was reported in channel news asia today that the shipping market is showing signs of recovery. However, China's economy is still showing signs of slow growth therefore the recovery should be more gradual instead of a sharp recovery.

The Baltic Dry index is an indicator of the state of the shipping industry.  

Investopedia explains Baltic Dry index as:

A shipping and trade index created by the London-based Baltic Exchange that measures changes in the cost to transport raw materials such as metals, grains and fossil fuels by sea. The Baltic Exchange directly contacts shipping brokers to assess price levels for a given route, product to transport and time to delivery (speed). 

The Baltic Dry Index is a composite of three sub-indexes that measure different sizes of dry bulk carriers (merchant ships) - Capesize, Supramax and Panamax. Multiple geographic routes are evaluated for each index to give depth to the index's composite measurement.

It is also known as the "Dry Bulk Index".



The index has jumped 68% during the first half of the year. This will benefit dry bulk shippers as they see an increase rate for each trip. 

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