Baltic Dry Index Advances for Second Day but Finishes the Week Lower

International Shipping News — 22/08/2026

The Baltic Exchange's dry bulk freight index rose for a second consecutive session on Friday, climbing 1.8% to 2,841 points, with gains recorded across all vessel segments.

The index, which monitors freight rates for ships carrying dry bulk commodities such as iron ore, coal and grain, is published daily by the London-based Baltic Exchange and is widely watched as a gauge of activity in the seaborne trade of raw materials. Because it is compiled from daily broker assessments of rates for near-term vessel bookings, economists and commodity analysts follow it as a high-frequency read on demand for raw materials moving by sea, with China — the world's largest importer of iron ore — central to cargo flows on the biggest routes. It is compiled as a composite of its vessel-size segments.

The capesize index, which typically transports 150,000-ton cargoes including iron ore and coal, also gained for a second day, climbing 2.8% to 4,552 points. Capesize earnings are closely tied to the iron ore export routes from Australia and Brazil, which dominate seaborne supply of the steelmaking raw material. The panamax index, which tracks vessels carrying around 60,000 to 70,000 tons of coal or grain, snapped a seven-day losing streak, rising 0.7% to 2,108 points.

Among smaller vessels, the supramax index rose to fresh July highs.

Despite the two-day recovery, the benchmark index finished the week down 0.8%. Session-to-session swings of this kind reflect the balance between the volume of cargoes seeking ships and the supply of vessels available on each route, and the index remains far below the record highs above 11,000 points set in 2008 as well as well above the record low near 300 points plumbed in 2016.

Source: Trading Economics