By Wayne Yamada
The shipping rate for transporting dry bulk industrial minerals slid again this week on contracting manufacturing sectors across Asia and Europe.
Brokers also reported a lull in summer trading, which also contributed to the slump, while BHP Billiton, the world’s largest miner, said it would focus on cost cutting due to the falling market.
The Baltic Dry Index (BDI) was 878 on 1 August down from 982 on 24 July. Capesize, Panamax, Supramax, and Handymax indices were 1,181, 954, 1,023, and 570 respectively.
Weaker global manufacturing data was compounded by light summer mineral buying, which contributed to pulling...