Baltic Dry Index: Shipowners See Shake-Up in Market

The Baltic Dry Index may have recently snapped its winning streak, but ship owners are turning positive on the sector, saying things are “shaking up” in the dry bulk market as of late.

We are currently in the seasonal, low demand period for the BDI, but rates have held up fairly well. The BDI finished this week at 933 points. Although it has corrected since peaking above 1300 points in the spring rally, the losses have been relatively modest, and shipbrokers remain positive that the market is improving.

In its latest weekly report, shipbroker Intermodal said that “after an admittedly challenging 2016, the Dry Bulk market kicked off this year on a much more positive note, with all indices steadily increasing until the end of March market peak. During the second quarter and until the beginning of this month, the freight market witnessed pressure, which was more evident in Capesizes, with the BDI nonetheless resisting to break below 800 points. During the past couple of weeks, we have seen rates across the board steading and the Dry Bulk Index once again moving towards 1,000 points.”

While hire rates are not at all where shipping companies want them to be (many are still in a loss-making territory) things are definitely much better than they were a year ago when the BDI was at 665 points. Also, while they are fluctuating the overall trend is upward.

One example, this week, according to Tradewinds, Diana Shipping secure another rate rise this week when Glencore Agriculture fixed the 82,193-dwt Maia at $10,125 per day for 12 to 15 months. Under its previous charter, Maia was earning $7,500 per day from RWE Supply & Trading.