Jan 15 (Reuters) – The Baltic Exchange’s most important sea freight index, which tracks charges for ships carrying industrial commodities, touched a file low for the ninth straight session Friday, largely because of vessel oversupply and lack of worldwide demand.

The general index, which gauges the price of transport dry bulk cargoes together with iron ore, cement, grain, coal and fertiliser, was down 10 factors, or 2.61 %, at 373 factors.

The index has plunged by over hundred factors or about 22 % this yr. On Wednesday, it fell under 400 factors for the primary time on file.

The capesize, panamax and handysize indices additionally touched file lows on Friday.

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

The capesize index shed 27 factors, or 12 %, to 198 factors on Thursday. Average day by day earnings for capesize vessels dropped $193 to a file low of $2,748.

“(The) fundamental problem is not fleet growth but negative demand growth. Slowing economic growth and significant turmoil in commodity prices is resulting in extremely low chartering activity,” stated Clarksons Platou analyst Frode Morkedal.

Morkedal expects ship scrapping actions to surge and newbuild deliveries to be postponed, ensuing decrease fleet progress this yr.

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

The panamax index dropped 7 factors to 381 factors.

Average day by day earnings for panamaxes, which often carry coal or grain cargoes of about 60,000 to 70,000 tonnes, fell $54 to $3,049. (Reporting By Nallur Sethuraman in Bengaluru; Editing by Katharine Houreld)

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