Wed May 9, 2012
May 9 (Reuters) - The Baltic Exchange's main sea freight index, which tracks rates for ships carrying dry commodities, fell on Wednesday as weaker rates for smaller panamax vessels offset small gains in capesizes.
The overall index, which reflects the daily freight market prices for capesize, panamax, supramax and handysize dry bulk transport vessels, lost nine points or 0.77 percent to 1,156 points.
The Baltic's panamax index fell 3.54 percent, with average daily earnings down $406 to $11,099.
"Panamaxes lost much of their support in the market this week due to slower activity, while at the same time supras and handies look to have lost much of their positive momentum and are likely to follow in suite," Greek ship broker Intermodal said in its weekly report.
Seasonal grain exports from Latin America had boosted demand for the panamaxes, but slowdown in activity has been weighing on rates for the vessels, which usually transport 60,000-70,000 tonne cargoes of coal or grains.
Rates for supramax vessels were down at $11,660, whereas rates for handysize vessels were slightly up at $9,135.
The Baltic's capesize index rose 0.18 percent to 1,628 points.
Rates for capesizes, which typically transport 150,000 tonne cargoes such as iron ore and coal, were up $91 to $8,854, their highest since mid January.
Strong fixture activity in the Atlantic boosted capesize rates, RS Platou Markets analysts said in a report.
"Fixture activity and rates are still lagging in the Pacific, despite Australian iron ore majors making an appearance in the market yesterday," RS Platou analysts said.
"Even as we see continued rebound from the recent lows, the capesize rally could be capped if the activity levels fail to accelerate in the Pacific."
The main index, which factors in the average daily earnings of capesize, panamax, supramax and handysize dry bulk transport vessels, has fallen about 33 percent this year.
(Reporting by NR Sethuraman in Bangalore, editing by William Hardy)
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