Baltic Index Up for Seventh Straight Session

The Baltic Exchange's main sea freight index that tracks rates for ships carrying dry bulk commodities rose for a seventh session in a row on Thursday as rates firmed across all vessel segments.

The Baltic dry index, which tracks rates for capesize, panamax and supramax vessels, added 23 points, or 1.6%, to 1,448, its highest since Oct. 16, 2020.

The capesize index gained 35 points, or about 1.7%, to 2,122, its highest level in more than two months.

Average daily earnings for capesizes, which typically transport 150,000-tonne cargoes such as iron ore and coal, were up $288 to $17,598.

"This year started fairly positive with a lot of new requirements in the East, and together with the bad weather currently experienced in China, delaying discharge operations, makes the demand/supply ratio for prompt tonnage very healthy," Fearnleys Research said about the capesize vessel segment in a weekly note.

Iron ore prices rose on Thursday, propelled by restocking demand from Chinese steel mills, with the most-active May contract on the Dalian Commodity Exchange up 3.1% at 1,062.50 yuan a tonne at the close of daytime trading.

The panamax index rose by 41 points, or 2.8%, to 1,504, its highest level in over four months.

Average daily earnings for panamaxes, which usually carry coal or grain cargoes of about 60,000 tonnes to 70,000 tonnes, gained $367 to $13,533.

The supramax index inched up a point to 1,023.

(Reporting by Bharat Govind Gautam in Bengaluru; editing by Uttaresh.V)