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June 12, 2023BALTIC DRY INDEX, JUNE 2023 The Baltic Dry Index (BDI) measures procurement costs of shipping raw materials by sea. When these costs go down, goods producers benefit from lower shipping costs, and consumers benefit from lower prices for finished products. Higher values indicate more costly shipping, with impacts on costs for goods producers and ultimately for consumer prices.
Recent Activity
The Baltic Dry Index increased significantly during the first three quarters of 2021. This reflected strong post-pandemic demand for goods as well as supply chain issues. However, by the end of 2021, the Baltic Dry Index had lost all these increases. After rising again in early 2022, the Baltic Dry Index trended down through the end of the year and stabilized in early 2023 at levels below those reported at the beginning of 2021.
Trends
The Baltic Dry Index as of June 9, 2023 was at a level below what was observed through much of 2019, but above levels that prevailed during much of 2015 and 2016.
The Baltic Dry Index remains well below peaks (11,793 in May 2008) observed prior to the global financial crisis.
Sources: The Baltic Exchange; Baltic Dry Index Commodities; Trading View; Bloomberg
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