Dry sector decline halted

London: The Baltic’s Dry Index climbed more than 100 points yesterday, halting the steep decline of recent days.

Better Panamax rates, particularly on Pacific round voyages, saw that index climb 6.3% to 5243 and the Baltic Dry Index finished 102 points higher overall, at 4,958. Modest gains were also posted in the Capesize and Supramax indices although the Baltic Handysize Index shed a further seven points. Although Capesize rates are dramatically down on levels prevailing a couple of weeks ago, they are still underpinned to some extent by solid Chinese demand, experts point out. Long-term charters are still being fixed at healthy levels and average earnings, admittedly down, are still firm in historical terms, at more than $60,000 a day, according to Clarkson. However, the implications for shipping of recent global financial turmoil are only now coming to light. A significant volume of the record orderbook still has to be financed and some new shipyards were already running into funding difficulties, even before the events of this week.
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