Mon Apr 30, 2012
By NR Sethuraman
April 30 (Reuters) - The Baltic Exchange's main sea freight index, which tracks rates for ships carrying dry commodities, fell on Monday for the first time in 14 days as rates for smaller vessels fell slightly.
The overall index, a gauge of the cost of shipping commodities such as iron ore, cement, grain, coal and fertiliser, lost one point or 0.09 percent to 1,155 points.
Analysts predicted a slow start to the week with China off for the labour day holidays.
"I'm not very hopeful that I would see very strong movements at the end of the week. The market has lost a lot of its momentum due to the pause," George Lazaridis of broking firm Intermodal said.
The Baltic's panamax index dropped 0.75 percent, with average daily earnings down $103 at $13,774.
"Caribbean inquiry has dropped a bit but rates should remain somewhat level for the short term," McQuilling Partners said in its market commentary.
The Baltic's capesize index dropped 0.2 percent to 1,496 points.
The capesize has been having a lot of trouble because of the drop in demand over the last couple of weeks, Intermodal's Lazaridis said.
"They have even started to compete on certain coal cargoes, which would have been initially focused by the panamaxes," Lazaridis said.
Average daily earnings for handysize rose to $8967, however rates for supramax ships were down at $11,510.
"We expect (capesize) activity and rates to slowly climb the next few months as China returns to the market after several months with destocking of iron ore," RS Platou market analysts said in a note.
The main index, which factors in the average daily earnings of capesize, panamax, supramax and handysize dry bulk transport vessels, has fallen about 34 percent this year.
(Reporting by NR Sethuraman in Bangalore, editing by William Hardy)
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