The Baltic Dry Index, or BDI, is published daily by the Baltic Exchange Limited, or Baltic Exchange, a London-based membership organization that provides daily shipping market information to the global investment community.

The Baltic Dry Index is an average of selected ship brokers’ assessments of the time charter rates paid by a client to charter a bulk carrier to carry dry bulk cargoes by sea.

Take note: The BDI has long been seen as the primary benchmark for monitoring dry bulk ship charter market movements and the performance of the entire dry bulk shipping market.

The BDI decreased from a high of 11,793 in May 2008 to a low of 663 in December 2008, representing a 94% decline in a single calendar year.

Since 2009, the BDI has remained quite depressed compared to historical figures.

After the BDI hit a new all-time low of 290 on February 10, 2016, it remained significantly depressed between 2008 and 2018.

In 2020, the BDI ranged from a low of 393 on May 14, 2020, to a high of 2,097 on October 6, 2020.

Baltic Dry Index

In 2021, the BDI rose to a high of 5,650 on Oct 7, 2021 and had a low of 1,303 on Feb 10, 2021.

During the calendar year 2022 through April 11, the BDI has ranged from a high of 2,727 (on March 14, 2022) to a low of 1,296 (on January 26, 2022).

In general, the revenues, profits and profitability of companies in the industry are affected by the charter rates that can be obtained in the market, which is volatile and has seen significant drops since its highs in 2008.

The above scenario was described by Globus Maritime, an integrated dry bulk shipping company that provides shipping services globally.

The company owns, operates and manages a fleet of dry bulk cargo ships that transport iron ore, coal, grain, steel products, cement, alumina and other dry bulk cargoes internationally.