As part of the changes being made to its Supramax Index, the London-based Baltic Exchange will be launching dual reporting of a new Panamax Index on a trial basis and is in the final consultation process of a new Handysize Vessel dual reporting period for the Handysize Index.
The Baltic Exchange has been dual reporting the Supramax 58,000 since July 2015. Following a successful trial, it will stop publishing the 52,000 dwt assessments from April 3, 2017.
Contracts based on the 52,000 dwt weighted average time charter will now settle on a derived value from the common five routes between the 52,000 dwt and the 58,000 dwt vessel.
Additionally, the Baltic Exchange said that from April 24 dual reporting of the Baltic Panamax vessels will start, trialling a new larger vessel size, based on a Tess 82,500 dwt gearless Panamax. Following market consultation an additional route is now included and the trial 82 weighted time charter average will be based on five routes.
At the same time the Baltic Exchange has set out a proposal to use an Imabari 38,200 dwt geared bulk carrier as the new benchmark vessel to represent the Handysize sector. The current working group recommended the addition of a Pacific based route and consultation with the market is now in its final stage.
“The amendments are part of an ongoing quality review of the Baltic Exchange Indices and assessments to ensure that the benchmarks continue to accurately reflect the changing dry bulk shipping fleet profile and cargo flows,” the Baltic Exchange said.
Copyright Ships & Ports Ltd. Permission to use quotations from this article is granted subject to appropriate credit given to www.shipsandports.com.ng as the source.