Baltic Dry Index Scales Near 3-month Peak

The Baltic Exchange's dry bulk sea freight index .BADI hit its highest in nearly three months on Wednesday, helped by a jump in rates across its vessel segments.

The overall index, which factors in rates for capesize, panamax, supramax and handysize shipping vessels, rose 206 points to 2,558 points, its highest since Dec. 15.

The capesize index .BACI gained 386 points, or 20.4% to 2,282 points, its highest since Jan. 11.

Average daily earnings for capesizes, which typically transport 150,000-tonne cargoes such as iron ore and coal, increased $3,207 to $18,928.

"We saw an injection of coal cargo from Indonesia" as most of the support came from the Pacific market, said Yannis Parganas, director at Intermodal Research.

Indonesian coal miners are holding talks with buyers seeking alternatives to Russian coal.

Operations from Black Sea were rescheduled as they couldn't proceed to load ports near Ukraine and Russia, Parganas said, adding "the overall fundamentals (for the dry bulk market) remain strong."

Meanwhile, Chinese stainless steel futures dropped after opening more than 7% higher, as investors assessed the uncertainties caused by surging prices of raw material nickel.

The panamax index .BPNI was up 153 points at 3,194 points.

Average daily earnings for panamaxes, which usually carry coal or grain cargoes of about 60,000 tonnes to 70,000 tonnes, increased $1,377 to $28,744.

The supramax index .BSIS rose 112 points, its highest in more than four months, to 2,845 points.

(Reuters - Reporting by Rahul Paswan in Bengaluru; Editing by Krishna Chandra Eluri)