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The Baltic Dry Index fell further today after yesterday’s biggest daily percentage drop since 1984. Jan 4 (Reuters) – The Baltic Exchange’s dry bulk sea freight index extended its decline to hit an over one-month low on Wednesday, weighed by weaker demand across vessel segments. * The overall index, which factors in rates for capesize, panamax and supramax shipping vessels carrying dry bulk commodities, lost 74 points, or 5.9%, to 1,176, a day after posting its biggest daily percentage loss in decades. * The capesize index dropped 119 points, or 7.3%, to 1,516, its lowest in more than four weeks....

Ever wonder why prices are rising so fast? One reason is that with rapidly rising energy prices under the Biden Administration, the costs are getting passed-through to consumers in the form of higher prices. According to the Cass Corp Freight Index, the total spent in December on shipping goods to their customers in the US spiked by 43.6% from December 2020 to December 2021. Not surprising since energy prices over the past year have soared by almost 50%. But at the same time, the Baltic Dry index (The Baltic Dry Index (BDI) is a shipping and trade index created by...

Who could have seen this coming? Remember a week ago when TV entertainers crowed about the surge in The Baltic Dry Freight Index was a "clear signal" that 'China is back' baby and that escape velocity growth was just around the corner as global growth was destined to pick up... Well, just as we warned very explicitly, the ramp in the index merely reflected the frenzied speculation in industrial metals by the Chinese and as authorities have cracked down on that idiocy, so the Baltic Dry has plunged by the most since November... as real demand punches back.

A measure of international trade often seen as a bellwether for the global economy has crashed to its lowest level ever, fueling fears we could be heading for another 2008-style crash. Back in November, the Baltic Dry Index dropped below 500 for the first time in recorded history, and it has kept falling ever since. On Wednesday morning it fell to a low of 369. To put that into perspective, the index was as high as 1,222 in August, and it has fallen 84% from a recent peak of 2,330 in late 2013. The Baltic Dry Index measures how much...

"A key barometer of world trade has crashed to a record low in a worrying sign the global economy is grinding to a halt. The so-called Baltic Dry Index, which measures the cost of shipping raw materials such as coal, iron ore and grain, has fallen nearly 70 per cent since August to its lowest level since its introduction in 1985. The slump – which analysts said showed 'global trade is really suffering' as the outlook worldwide darkens – fuelled fears that the economy is heading for the rocks. It came on another bruising day for investors as worries about...

For the first time ever, the Baltic Dry Index has fallen under 400. As I write this article, it is sitting at 394. To be honest, I never even imagined that it could go this low. Back in early August, the Baltic Dry Index was sitting at 1,222, and since then it has been on a steady decline. Of course the Baltic Dry Index crashed hard just before the great stock market crash of 2008 too, but at this point it is already lower than it was during that entire crisis. This is just more evidence that global trade is...

The continued collapse of The Baltic Dry Index remains ignored by most - besides we still have Netflix, right? But, as Dollar Vigilante's Jeff Berwick details, it appears the worldwide 'real' economy has ground to a halt!! Last week, I received news from a contact who is friends with one of the biggest billionaire shipping families in the world. He told me they had no ships at sea right now, because operating them meant running at a loss. This weekend, reports are circulating saying much the same thing: The North Atlantic has little or no cargo ships traveling in its...

I was absolutely stunned to learn that the Baltic Dry Shipping Index had plummeted to a new all-time record low of 504 at one point on Thursday. I have written a number of articles lately about the dramatic slowdown in global trade, but I didn’t realize that things had gotten quite this bad already. Not even during the darkest moments of the last financial crisis did the Baltic Dry Shipping Index drop this low. Something doesn’t seem to be adding up, because the mainstream media keeps telling us that the global economy is doing just fine. In fact, the Federal...

Over the past year we have regularly contended that a far greater threat to the global economy than either corporate earnings, currency devaluations, rate cuts (or hikes), reserve outflow, or even the stock market, is the sudden, global trade crunch which has been deteriorating rapidly since late 2014 and has seen an even more dramatic drop off as 2015 is winding down. Actually, that is incorrect: global trade is merely a manifestation of the true state of the above listed items. ... We have in the past joked that the only thing that could possibly save the world from what...

July 21 2015 Clark Schultz, SA News Editor The Baltic Dry Index rose 4.3% to 1,113 with gains registering for capesize, panamax, and supramax rates. The BDI has doubled since February when a weak market prompted some companies to scrap ships. Shipping rates are still well-below the level from late 2013 to late 2014.(snip)

February 22, 2015 By: Austin Galt Copper got a bit of press attention recently with headlines of a plunge in price. This was in early January and I hadn't looked at the copper chart for a few days and I was gobsmacked when I did. A plunge they say?! What a load of baloney!! If that was a plunge then they are in for a big shock later this year if my analysis is correct. But let's not get ahead of ourselves. Let's start with the small picture and then come back to the big picture which will reveal the...

Tyler Durden 02/16/2015 You know things are bad in the ship-building business when... amid considerably larger than expected losses, China's COSCO announced that it has dis-assembled 8 vessels in January alone (including 3 bulk carriers) and will be decommissioning and disposing of them as it awaits a "more conducive" environment. It appears that is not coming anytime soon, as The Baltic Dry Index just hit 522 - a new all-time low (down a stunning 53 of the last 55 days). As COSCO explains in its HKSE Statement:(snip)

The Baltic Dry Index just hit a 28-year low. The index drew attention for mapping the financial crisis, going through the floor as the global economy tanked in 2008, but it just slumped to an even lower level. The index measures shipping costs for dry bulk commodities (minerals and metals like coal and iron, as well as grain and other food). It plunged by more than 90% in just a few months in 2008 as the global crisis unrolled. Then, it was an impressive bellwether for the global situation. Shipping costs were previously so expensive because demand was strong and...

Tyler Durden 01/08/2015 Must be over-supply too, right? Just like oil prices... The Baltic Dry Index - which apparently is only relevant when it is rising - has never been lower at this time of year.(snip)

Is World Trade Falling Like A Lead Balloon Minus Terminal Velocity? Alarming Collapse of Baltic Dry Index Economics / Recession 2012 Jan 30, 2012 - 03:32 AM By: BATR Significance of BDI Is the Baltic Dry Index (BDI) one of the most significant leading economic indicators to follow when the media is telling us the global economy is looking great one week and then predicting a double dip recession the next? We are increasingly concerned about the substantial decline in global shipping’s Baltic Dry Index. Is this a significant canary in the mine shaft in regard to what lies ahead...

The TRUTH About The Massive Plunge In The Baltic Dry Index Joe Weisenthal January 29-2012 Lately we've been getting a lot of concerned emails about this chart. That chart is a 1-year look at the Baltic Dry Index, which measures the spot cost of shipping good by ship around the world. As you can see, it's plunged nearly 66% since its recent highs, and understandably, people are wondering whether this remarkable deflation means the global economy is falling straight off the cliff, or at a minimum indicative of a rapid hard landing in China. To answer this question, let's first...

CHART OF THE DAY: Why Is The Baltic Dry Index Getting Crushed? Sam Ro Jan. 25, 2012, 9:48 AMPeople can't seem to decide if they're concerned or just confused by the Baltic Dry Index (BDIY), which has plunged 53% since the beginning of the year.The BDIY is a benchmark for dry bulk shipping rates and is often cited as a proxy for the global economy. Sure, the global economy isn't as healthy as it could be. Just yesterday, the IMF cut its global GDP growth forecast to 3.3% in 2012 and 3.9% in 2013. This compares to its previous forecast...

A record 370,000 TEUs of ship capacity was scrapped in 2009 – an amount equal to the cumulative capacity scrapped over the past decade – says Shipping Gazette quoting figures compiled by Alphaliner, the Paris-based consultancy agency. This is the largest ever recorded level of scrapping of capable container ships largely because the owners struggle to find employment for surplus vessels. According to figures, 200 container ships were sold for scrap in 2009, including the 17-year-old Hyundai Admiral (capacity 4651 TEUs). With this high level of scrapping, the average age of vessels demolished has dropped to 27 years, thus reversing...

The biggest and most secretive gathering of ships in maritime history lies at anchor east of Singapore. Never before photographed, it is bigger than the U.S. and British navies combined but has no crew, no cargo and no destination - and is why your Christmas stocking may be on the light side this year The tropical waters that lap the jungle shores of southern Malaysia could not be described as a paradisical shimmering turquoise. They are more of a dark, soupy green. They also carry a suspicious smell. Not that this is of any concern to the lone Indian face...

Drewry Calls Dry Bulk Recovery Temporary Peter T. Leach | May 21, 2009 2:47PM GMT The Journal of Commerce Online - News Story Container Lines | Maritime | Container Shipping | Asia Consultant warns against false dawn in shipping sector Drewry Shipping Consultants is warning against a false dawn in the dry bulk shipping sector. The sector will have to dig itself in for a long recession, it said in its quarterly Dry Bulk Forecaster, which was published this week. The London consulting firm said that although the steep decline in market indicators seems to have reached the bottom, the...