Baltic Index Hits Over One-month Low

The Baltic Exchange's main sea freight index dropped to a more than one-month low on Thursday, dragged down by weakness across all vessel segments.

The Baltic dry index, which tracks rates for ships ferrying dry bulk commodities and reflects rates for capesize, panamax and supramax vessels, fell 85 points, or 5.8%, to 1,388, its lowest since June 17.

The Baltic capesize index slumped 190 points, or 7.8%, to 2,236, its lowest in over a month.

Average daily earnings for capesizes, which typically transport cargoes of 170,000 tonnes to 180,000 tonnes, including iron ore and coal, declined by $1,578 to $18,542.

The panamax index dropped 72 points, or about 5.4%, to 1,263.

Average daily earnings for panamaxes, which usually carry coal or grain cargoes of about 60,000 tonnes to 70,000 tonnes, dipped by $649 to $11,363.

The supramax index was down 7 points at 925, snapping an 18-session rally.

(Reporting by Diptendu Lahiri; Editing by Aditya Soni)