Baltic Dry Index falls for 3rd straight session
The Baltic Dry Index, a measure of commodity-freight costs, fell for a third consecutive session as bookings to ship iron ore from Australia and Brazil declined and stockpiles at Chinese ports reached an all-time high, Bloomberg reports. The index retreated 0.3 per cent to 1,537 points as rates declined for three of the four vessel sizes tracked, according to the Baltic Exchange, a London-based provider of shipping rates on 29 dry-cargo routes. The gauge had advanced 27 per cent between Aug 9 and Aug 24.
Rates for capesize vessels that typically haul ore dropped as bookings fell and inventories of the steel-making ingredient rose to a record in China, the largest consumer, Oslo-based investment bank Pareto Securities AS said on Tuesday.
Stockpiles at Chinese ports reached 95.3 million metric tons on Aug 26, according to weekly data compiled by Bloomberg.
'It's a very, very tough trading environment out there for us dry-bulk ship owners,' said Ching Wei Man, vice-president of Oslo-listed Jinhui Shipping & Transportation, during a second-quarter earnings call yesterday.
The market will remain challenging throughout 2011, the company said.
Capesize rates dipped 0.3 per cent to US$16,668 a day, falling for a third session. Daily rents, which peaked at US$233,988 on June 5, 2008, are 51 per cent lower than a year ago, exchange data show.
Twenty-eight ships were booked to haul iron ore to China last week, three fewer than the week before, Pareto said.
The global fleet of commodity carriers is expanding about three times faster than trade, according to data from Clarkson Plc, the world's largest shipbroker.
Capesize vessels account for 40 per cent of fleet capacity, according to Clarkson Research Services. Seventy per cent of forecast exports of one billion tons of iron ore in 2011 will be from Brazil and Australia, according to Clarkson.
Dry-bulk vessels handle 39 per cent of world trade, according to a July presentation by Genco Shipping & Trading Ltd.
Daily rents for panamax bulk carriers, the largest that can transit the Panama Canal, were down 0.9 per cent to US$13,096, some 45 per cent lower than a year ago.
Supramax ships, which haul grains and minerals and are about 25 per cent smaller than panamax ships, dipped US$19 to US$14,489 a day. Handysize vessels rose 0.7 per cent to US$9,937 a day.
Rates for capesize vessels that typically haul ore dropped as bookings fell and inventories of the steel-making ingredient rose to a record in China, the largest consumer, Oslo-based investment bank Pareto Securities AS said on Tuesday.
Stockpiles at Chinese ports reached 95.3 million metric tons on Aug 26, according to weekly data compiled by Bloomberg.
'It's a very, very tough trading environment out there for us dry-bulk ship owners,' said Ching Wei Man, vice-president of Oslo-listed Jinhui Shipping & Transportation, during a second-quarter earnings call yesterday.
The market will remain challenging throughout 2011, the company said.
Capesize rates dipped 0.3 per cent to US$16,668 a day, falling for a third session. Daily rents, which peaked at US$233,988 on June 5, 2008, are 51 per cent lower than a year ago, exchange data show.
Twenty-eight ships were booked to haul iron ore to China last week, three fewer than the week before, Pareto said.
The global fleet of commodity carriers is expanding about three times faster than trade, according to data from Clarkson Plc, the world's largest shipbroker.
Capesize vessels account for 40 per cent of fleet capacity, according to Clarkson Research Services. Seventy per cent of forecast exports of one billion tons of iron ore in 2011 will be from Brazil and Australia, according to Clarkson.
Dry-bulk vessels handle 39 per cent of world trade, according to a July presentation by Genco Shipping & Trading Ltd.
Daily rents for panamax bulk carriers, the largest that can transit the Panama Canal, were down 0.9 per cent to US$13,096, some 45 per cent lower than a year ago.
Supramax ships, which haul grains and minerals and are about 25 per cent smaller than panamax ships, dipped US$19 to US$14,489 a day. Handysize vessels rose 0.7 per cent to US$9,937 a day.