The continuous increase of fares in the commercial shipping has caused the continuous increase of the basic bulk freight index, Baltic Dry Index (BDI) to 3976.00 USD (20.08.2021).
Restrictive measures to deal with the pandemic, fragmentation of the supply chain to and from China, causing long waiting times in Chinese ports, causing congestion and changes in trade routes (mainly in the coal market) have led to fare increase.
Indicatively, we report that freight rates on the Brazil-China iron ore route were a decade high. More specifically:
Capesizes, panamaxes and supramaxes fares used to calculate BDI increased to
Capesize Index 112 points or 2.6% to 4414. With the corresponding average daily fare reaching
Capesize $ 47361, Panamaxe $ 33782, Supramax $ 35603, Handysize $ 33685.
On the other hand, the World Container Index-WCI which shows how much it costs to transport a 40ft container by sea is close to 10000 USD. More specifically, on August 19, 2021, the WCI moved up for the 18th week in a row (+ 2% or $ 192 compared to the previous week and reached 9613.28USD. This was an increase of 360% compared to a year ago.
The WCI is a complex index that incorporates many sea routes.
Spot freight rates by major East-West trading routes. Source: Drewry Supply Chain Advisors (www.drewry.co.uk)
| Routes | 5-08-2021 | 12-08-2021 | 19-08-2021 | Weekly Change (%) | Annual Change (%) |
| Composite Index | $9,371 | $9,421 | $9,613 | 2% | 360% |
| Shanghai-Rotterdam | $13,628 | $13653 | $13698 | 0% | 659% |
| Rotterdam-Shanghai | $1670 | $1651 | $1650 | 0% | 27% |
| Shanghai-Genoa | $12792 | $12993 | $13261 | 2% | 569% |
| Shanghai-Los Angeles | $10229 | $10322 | $10969 | 6% | 242% |
| Los Angeles-Shanghai | $1479 | $1461 | $1358 | -7% | 162% |
| Shanghai-New York | $13489 | $13505 | $13505 | 0% | 284% |
| New York-Rotterdam | $1257 | $1171 | $1154 | -1% | 106% |
| Rotterdam-New York | $6417 | $6390 | $6435 | 1% | 192% |
Despite the good performance of the bulk cargo freight market, the shares of the listed companies of the American Stock Exchange, remain at flat levels and this is because the investors expect that with the normalization of the supply chain they will fall.
