The Most Important Inflation Metric That You've Never Heard Of

Everything you need to know about the Baltic Dry Index!  

What is the BDI? BDI is simply daily dry bulk shipping rates— which reflect the supply/demand of dry bulk vessels. It's an index which measures the average cost of leasing ships to transport ‘dry bulk’ cargo (I.e. coal, iron ore, grains, etc). It measures costs of transporting various important raw materials by sea (e.g. coal, iron ore, grain) - It takes into account shipping routes, timing of delivery, ship capacity, and is a widely used benchmark in shipping. 

 What are the ships? Capesize: the largest ships in the BDI with 100,000 deadweight tonnage (DWT) or greater. The average size of a Capesize ship is 156,000 DWT Panamax: have a 60,000 to 80,000 DWT capacity, and they're used mostly to transport coal, grains, and minor bulk products such as sugar and cement. Supramax/handysize: These ships have a carrying capacity of 45,000 to 59,999 DWT.  

Major dry bulk commodities include iron ore, coal, and grain - two-thirds of global dry bulk trade. Minor bulks include steel products, sugars, cement  The BDI is good to pay attention to, but its not the whole inflation story. Its a divergence between things - so its expensive to be a human still, but its good to have pressure easing in some areas