Following consultation with its members, the Baltic Exchange will be implementing previously announced changes to the Baltic Dry Index (BDI).
Effective March 1, 2018 the BDI will be re-weighted to the following ratios of timecharter assessments: 40 percent Capesize, 30 percent Panamax and 30 percent Supramax. It will no longer include the Handysize timecharter average.
Commenting on the modifications, Baltic Exchange chief executive Mark Jackson said: "The Baltic Exchange has been publishing the Baltic Dry Index (BDI) in various forms since 1985 when it started life as the Baltic Freight Index (BFI). Like any aggregate index, its composition has changed over the years to reflect changes to the underlying market.
"In our case this means ensuring that the BDI broadly reflects dry bulk global trading patterns. The new weightings are simply the next phase of development in this process."
External research concluded that the contribution of the various dry bulk vessel types to the dry bulk market was 40 percent Capesize, 25 percent Panamax, 25 percent Supramax and 10 percent Handysize.
The Baltic Exchange said the decision to not include Handysize contributions makes no statistical difference to the calculation of the BDI, based on the above weightings.
