Dry Bulk — Capesize, Panamax, Supramax, Handysize
The four dry-bulk vessel classes, the cargoes and routes each was built for, and how their rates diverged during the 2007-2008 BDI mania
The Baltic Dry Index headline you read in lesson sl1_l3 — peaking at 11,793 on May 20, 2008, troughing at 663 on December 5, 2008 — hides as much as it reveals. The 94 percent collapse was real, but it landed unevenly across vessel classes. The Baltic Capesize Index (BCI), which tracks the largest dry-bulk vessels, fell from approximately 19,700 at the May 2008 peak to roughly 365 at the December trough — a 98 percent collapse and the most extreme single-class freight-rate reversal in modern shipping history.
The Baltic Panamax Index (BPI) fell from approximately 11,700 to 715 — a 94 percent collapse, in line with the BDI headline. The Baltic Supramax Index (BSI) fell from approximately 11,200 to 1,000 — a 91 percent collapse, comparable but somewhat less violent. And the Handysize sub-index fell less than half as far as Capesize did, because the smaller vessel class carried diversified minor-bulk cargoes whose demand did not collapse in unison the way Chinese iron ore did.
That is the opening. Finishing a lesson is where it stops being interesting and starts being useful: the full lesson runs to 7 sections and ends with 6 practice questions. A free account is what opens the rest, and the other 255 lessons in the Academy with it. No card.
What this lesson covers
- 1Why Capesize is the most volatile dry-bulk class
- 2Reading the dry-bulk sub-indices for what they actually mean
- 3Dry-bulk vessel classes — dimensions, cargoes, routes, and cycle amplitude
- 4The vessel-class concentration ratio — how diversified is your fleet?
- 5May-December 2008 — the Capesize collapse and what it told us about Chinese iron-ore demand
- 6Where to see this on the platform
- 7Summary