Dry Bulk: Worst Crisis in Living Memory Continues as Baltic Dry Index Falls Further to 363

by Ship & Bunker News Team
Tuesday January 19, 2016

What has been called the worst crisis in living memory for dry bulk showed no sign of a let up Tuesday, with the Baltic Dry Index falling yet again to a new record low of 363.

Today's six point decline means the sector's key barometer has now been at an all time record low for the past eleven trading days, having fallen 110 points - just over 23 percent - since starting the year at 473.

"We are now at the stage where people are struggling to remember an era when it was this difficult, we've gone through what it was like in the 90s, the 80s and the 70s, so expressions like 'living memory' start to apply," Jeremy Penn, the chief executive of the Baltic Exchange in London, was quoted as saying by the Telegraph.

On Tuesday, average spot TC rates for Supramax vessels finally broke the $4,000 threshold, falling to $3,989 per day.

Average spot TC rates fell to $2,662 per day for Capesize bulkers, and $2,952 per day for Panamax ships.

By contrast, Capesize rates had traded in the $15,000 to $25,000 range in the last two years, and in 2008 briefly hit $250,000, Penn noted, adding that there was little optimism for the future.

"Ship owners and people who are still in the market presumably still think there is hope, and that the market turnaround will come before they are completely desperate," he said.

"But there is widespread depression in the market at the moment."

Last week Adrian Tolson, Senior Partner at 20|20 Marine Energy told Ship & Bunker that "providing credit to dry bulk so they can buy bunkers is just getting incredibly difficult now."

Ship & Bunker News Team
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