Baltic Sea Freight Index Flat on Muted Vessel Activity
The Baltic Exchange's main sea freight index, which tracks rates for ships carrying dry bulk commodities, remained steady on Thursday due to a muted vessel activity.
The index, which factors in the average daily earnings of capesize, panamax, supramax and handysize dry bulk transport vessels, remained unchanged at 598 points.
The capesize index rose one point, or 0.22 percent, to 456 points.
Average daily earnings for capesizes, which typically transport 150,000-tonne cargoes such as iron ore and coal, rose $10 to $4,330.
The panamax index fell three points, or 0.5 percent, to 599 points.
Average daily earnings for panamaxes, which usually carry 60,000- to 70,000-tonne cargoes of coal or grain, fell $29 to $4,794.
The indexes for relatively smaller vessels, handysize and supramax, remained unchanged at 390 points and 648 points, respectively.
(Reporting by Nallur Sethuraman in Bengaluru, editing by David Evans)
