Economics
Baltic Dry Shipping Index Drops to All-Time Low
- China's iron ore buying to be weakest since 2010 next year
- World trade in the commodity grows slowest in more than decade
A bulk carrier is loaded with coal at the Newcastle Coal Terminal in this aerial photograph taken in Newcastle, Australia.
Photographer: Brendon Thorne/BloombergThis article is for subscribers only.
The cost of shipping commodities fell to a record, amid signs that Chinese demand growth for iron ore and coal is slowing, hurting the industry’s biggest source of cargoes.
The Baltic Dry Index, a measure of shipping rates for everything from coal to ore to grains, fell to 504 points on Thursday, the lowest data from the London-based Baltic Exchange going back to 1985. Among the causes of shipowners’ pain is slowing economic growth in China, which is translating into weakening demand for imported iron ore that’s used to make the steel.