Baltic Dry Index Rises for Fourth Month

The Baltic Exchange's main sea freight index rose for a fourth straight month, though gains were capped as it slipped for a sixth consecutive session on Tuesday.

The overall index, which factors in rates for capesize, panamax and supramax shipping vessels, lost 5 points, or 0.2%, to 2,566.

However, the index gained about 6.7% for the month.

The capesize index fell by 74 points, or about 2.9%, to 2,668 points, but rose about 24.9% this month.

The most-active iron ore futures on the Dalian Commodity Exchange DCIOcv1 for September delivery gained as much as 3.8% to 908 yuan per tonne in morning trade. They ended up 2.1% at 893 yuan per tonne and rose 2.6% in May.

Average daily earnings for capesizes, which typically transport 150,000-tonne cargoes such as iron ore and coal, were down $610 at $22,126.

The panamax index dropped 71 points, or 2.4%, to 2,873 points, losing 2.2% this month.

Average daily earnings for panamaxes, which usually carry coal or grain cargoes of about 60,000 tonnes to 70,000 tonnes, decreased by $633 to $25,860.

The supramax index .BSIS lost 31 points to 2,743 points and was up by 0.3% for the month.

(Reuters - Reporting by Rahul Paswan; Editing by Vinay Dwivedi)