Jan 19 (Reuters) – The Baltic Exchange’s fundamental sea freight index, which tracks charges for ships carrying industrial commodities, continued its freefall to shut at a file low on Tuesday amid issues over vessel oversupply and international demand scarcity.

The total index, which gauges the price of transport dry bulk cargoes together with iron ore, cement, grain, coal and fertiliser, fell for the eleventh straight session and was down six factors, or 1.63 p.c, at 363 factors.

The index has plunged 115 factors or round 24 p.c in January.

The capesize, panamax, supramax, and handysize indices additionally continued their downward spiral and touched their all time lows on Tuesday.

The dry bulk sector has taken a beating from the slowdown in Chinese enterprise at a time when the sector is combating enormous overcapacity.

The capesize index fell 12 factors, or 6.09 p.c, to 185 factors. Average every day earnings for capesize vessels decreased by $68 to a brand new file low of $2,662.

Capesizes usually transport 150,000-tonne cargoes akin to iron ore and coal and have been notably affected by a fall-off in coal and iron ore demand in China.

The panamax index fell 6 factors to 369 factors.

Average every day earnings for panamaxes, which often carry coal or grain cargoes of about 60,000 to 70,000 tonnes, fell $47 to $2,952. (Reporting by Vijaykumar Vedala in Bengaluru; Editing by Katharine Houreld)

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