LONDON—The Baltic Dry Index, a measure of shipping costs for commodities, dropped 3.2 percent in London for its sharpest decline in almost a month as reduced coal production from Australia cut cargoes.

The index, which tracks transport costs on international trade routes, slid 238 points to 7,081 points, according to the Baltic Exchange. It was the biggest decline since January 24. Rental rates for coal and iron-ore ships fell while those for grains and steel advanced.

“It has just been deathly quiet,” Dorian Benson, a director at freight-derivatives broker GFI South Africa, said by phone Thursday. Delays to coal production in Queensland have created a “vacuum of cargoes,” he said.

The cost of renting capesize vessels, the biggest within the Baltic’s benchmark hauling about 170,000 metric-ton cargoes, fell 7 percent to $103,704 a day. Panamax rates declined 4.5 percent to $58,833 a day.

Rental rates for smaller supramax and handysize carriers climbed to $51,633 and $32,835 a day, respectively.

The BHP Billiton Mitsubishi Alliance, known as BMA, said last month output from its operations in northeastern Australia would be cut for as long as six months because of flooding.

BMA, the world’s biggest exporter of coal used in steel making, and at least four other producers have declared force majeure on deliveries from mines in Queensland. Force majeure is a legal clause that allows a company to miss deliveries because of circumstances beyond its control.

Anglo American Plc., the world’s second-biggest mining company, said South African exports of thermal coal used in power plants may drop by about 2 million metric tons this year because of power shortages.

Forward-freight agreements (FFAs), contracts traders buy and sell to bet on or hedge the cost of shipping, declined for a fourth day for capesize vessels, the biggest in the Baltic benchmark.

The contracts for April to June fell 5 percent to $116,000 a day, according to prices from Benson at about 2:10 p.m. London time. April-to-June FFAs for panamaxes, the second-biggest in the index, declined 5.8 percent to $60,000 a day. (Bloomberg)

Agency to seek dismissal of port case again

THE Philippine Ports Authority (PPA) will try to convince a Manila court for the second time that a case filed by a joint-venture company regarding the Manila North Harbor privatization should be dismissed.

HONG KONG—Neptune Orient Lines Ltd. and Cosco Corp. Singapore Ltd. led declines among Asian shipping lines on concern surging oil prices will boost fuel costs.

NEW YORK—Interest rates on $100 million of bonds issued by the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey were set at 8 percent in a weekly auction run by Goldman Sachs Group Inc. after surging to 20 percent on February 12.

LONDON—The cost of shipping Middle East crude to Asia, the world’s busiest route for supertankers, may advance a seventh day as owners await an increase in March cargoes and demand for smaller vessels rises.

LONDON—The Baltic Dry Index, a measure of shipping costs for commodities, dropped 3.2 percent in London for its sharpest decline in almost a month as reduced coal production from Australia cut cargoes.