Steady Demand Propels Baltic Dry Index to Weekly Gains

The Baltic Exchange's main sea freight index fell on Friday pressured by a dip in the capesize segment, but posted a weekly rise powered by overall gains across all vessel segments.

The overall index, which factors in rates for capesize, panamax and supramax shipping vessels, fell 31 points, or about 1.6%, to 1,961.

It posted a weekly gain of 11.4%, gaining for five out of the last six weeks.

The capesize index lost 110 points, or about 4.4%, at 2,396, but notched up a 23% weekly gain.

Average daily earnings for capesizes, which typically transport 150,000-tonne cargoes such as iron ore and coal, were down $912 to $19,874.

The panamax index added three points to rise to 2,235, posting a fifth straight weekly gain of 7.3%.

Average daily earnings for panamaxes, which usually carry coal or grain cargoes of about 60,000 to 70,000 tonnes, were up $32 to $20,116.

A fifth vessel chartered by the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) has left Ukraine's Black Sea port of Chornomorsk and will deliver 30,000 tonnes of Ukrainian wheat to Ethiopia, Ukraine's infrastructure ministry said.

South Africa's logistics utility Transnet declared force majeure at its ports on Thursday, according to a document seen by Reuters, as workers began an open-ended strike over wages.

The supramax index rose 16 points to 1,706.

(Reuters - Reporting by Harshit Verma; Editing by Shinjini Ganguli)