Aug 28 (Reuters) – The Baltic Exchange’s main sea freight index fell over 1% on Friday, pressured by a dip in capesize vessel rates.
* The Baltic dry index, which tracks rates for ships ferrying dry bulk commodities and reflects rates for capesize, panamax and supramax vessels, shed 16 points, or 1.1%, at 1,488.
* The index registered a small 0.5% weekly gain.
* The capesize index fell 46 points, or 2%, to 2,218.
* However, the capesize index registered a 2.7% weekly gain.
* Average daily earnings for capesizes, which typically transport cargoes of 170,000 tonnes to 180,000 tonnes including iron ore and coal, declined $381 to $18,394.
* The panamax index edged down 2 points to 1,617, falling for a tenth consecutive session.
* Average daily earnings for panamaxes, which usually carry coal or grain cargoes of about 60,000 tonnes to 70,000 tonnes, was down $19 at $14,549.
* The supramax index was flat at 958. (Reporting by Diptendu Lahiri in Bengaluru; Editing by Ramakrishnan M.)
