The Baltic Exchange’s main sea freight index dropped on Thursday for an 11th straight session, pressured by a dip in capesize and panamax vessel rates.
The overall index, which factors in rates for capesize, panamax, supramax and handysize shipping vessels, was down 27 points, or 2.1%, at 1,269 points.
The capesize index lost 49 points, or 2.6%, at 1,818 points.
Average daily earnings for capesizes, which typically transport 150,000-tonne cargoes such as iron ore and coal, fell $407 to $15,075.
Rising Chinese steel scrap availability remains a major threat to iron ore demand over the long-run, Citi said in a note.
“While we don’t expect $130 per tonne (/t) iron ore will last, we do see iron ore trading in the $100-120/t range for the rest of 2020, given the broadly balanced seaborne market.”
The panamax index was down 33 points, or 2.4%, at 1,337 points.
Average daily earnings for panamaxes, which usually carry coal or grain cargoes of about 60,000 tonnes to 70,000 tonnes, dropped $294 to $12,036.
Among smaller vessels, the supramax index fell eight points to 923, while the handysize index fell three points to 562.
Source: Reuters (Reporting by Arundhati Sarkar in Bengaluru; Editing by Vinay Dwivedi)
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