Some thing I use to hear the guys and dolls at EC talk about. It would get me singing "How Dry I Am" and made myself a drink. Say a classy news article about it , the Dry not the me.
Something i use to hear the guys and dolls at EC talk about that would get me singing How Dry I am and mix myself a drink. Remembered when I saw this classy news article.



http://www.businessweek.com/news/2010-07-1...er-vessels.html


Commodity-Shipping Rates Extend Decline, Led by Larger Vessels
July 14, 2010, 11:54 AM EDT

uly 14 (Bloomberg) -- The Baltic Dry Index, a measure of commodity-shipping costs, fell for the 34th consecutive day, the longest decline in almost nine years, as rates plunged to hire larger iron ore carriers.

Rents for capesize ships that haul iron ore to make steel fell 17 percent, the most since October 2008. Steel prices in China, the biggest iron-ore consumer, are likely to drop 10 percent for the rest of the year, JPMorgan Chase & Co. said in a note on July 12. Baoshan Iron & Steel Co., the biggest publicly traded steelmaker in China, cut steel prices for a second month.

“Iron ore buying has really fallen off,” Peter Norfolk, research director at Freight Investor Services Ltd. in London, said by phone today. A “rapid increase in steel production has led to oversupply. It’s not taken long for increased steel output to overrun demand.”

The Baltic Dry Index of rates on international trade routes fell 81 points, or 4.5 percent, to 1,709 points, according to the London-based Baltic Exchange. Rates have dropped everyday starting May 27, the longest retreat since Aug. 15, 2001.

Chinese prices for 25 millimeter (1 inch) rebar, a steel product used to reinforce concrete, have fallen 2.6 percent this month while iron-ore stockpiles rose 4.8 percent, according to data from Antaike Information Development Co.

This year the three biggest iron ore miners, Vale SA, Rio Tinto Group and BHP Billiton Ltd., moved away from a 40-year custom of pricing supplies annually by signing quarterly contracts. Material is selling under contract at $145 to $150 a metric ton in the current three-month period, according to Arctic Securities ASA. That compares to a spot price of $117.60.

Chinese buyers may be delaying purchases in anticipation of lower contract prices in the fourth quarter, Norfolk said.

Capesize rents fell to $12,278 a day, the lowest since January 2009. Operating expenses for the vessels, once financing is taken out, are about $7,000 a day, according to Guy Campbell, head of dry-bulk at London-based Clarkson Plc, the world’s biggest shipbroker.

Daily rates for smaller panamaxes, which compete for coal and iron-ore cargoes and also transport grains, gained 1.7 percent to $15,941. Supramaxes, used for fell 2.5 percent and handysizes lost 1.6 percent, according to the exchange.