The Baltic Dry Index

The Baltic Dry Index (BDI) provides an assessment of the price of moving the major raw materials by sea. It is a number that tracks worldwide international shipping prices of various dry bulk cargoes, often compared to the economic snapshot provided by the ISM index which reports on manufacturing business (http://www.ism.ws/ISMReport/MfgROB.cfm?navItemNumber=12942)

The attached article from the UK provides dramatic visual evidence of what they are describing in the BDI. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/home/moslive/article-1212013/Revealed-The-ghost-fleet-recession-anchored-just-east-Singapore.html