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Shipping costs up on optimism

March 11, 2010 - 00:00 GMT

KEYWORDS: BDI , shipping , freight , iron ore

Baltic Dry Index rises on Asian coal demand and bullish Chinese iron ore price forecasts

Giving strength to the BDI was a coal deal struck between a Japanese steel maker and mining giant BHP Billiton which indicated that demand for raw material is on the rise.

The world's sixth largest steel manufacturer, JFE Holdings Inc., agreed a 55% price rise for hard coking coal over the next three month, meaning the price of the fuel will rise to $200 a tonne from around $129 compared with the last financial year.

And shippers and banks have seen the agreement as sign that steel, iron ore, and coal demand were expected to rise, with large raw...

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