The Baltic Exchange’s main sea freight index retreated on Friday, but still notched up an over 9% weekly rise driven by strong overall gains in the capesize segment.
The Baltic dry index, tracking rates for capesize, panamax and supramax vessels ferrying dry bulk commodities, shed 38 points, or 2.1%, to 1,754, but firmed 9.2% this week.
The main index has gained for seven out of the last eight weeks.
The capesize index dropped 119 points, or about 4%, to 2,893, but was up 13.5% for the week.
The index rose for the fourth week in a row, helped by Chinese demand for coal shipments amid a surge in power consumption.
Average daily earnings for capesizes, which typically transport 150,000-tonne cargoes such as iron ore and coal, fell $990 to $23,989.
The panamax index edged 2 points lower, or 0.1%, to 1,616, but ended the week up 3.7%.
Average daily earnings for panamaxes, which usually carry coal or grain cargoes of about 60,000 tonnes to 70,000 tonnes, were down $17 at $14,545.
The supramax index gained 6 points to 1,086, its highest in over 14 months, and rose 5.5% this week.
Source: Hellenic Shipping
