THE Baltic Dry Index, a measure of the cost of shipping commodities, ended five days of gains in London, led by a decline in the cost of hiring the largest carriers.

The index fell 69 points, or 0.7 percent, to 10,216 points, according to the London-based Baltic Exchange.

Hire rates dropped for capesize and panamax carriers, the biggest vessels within the benchmark.

Hire rates are “probably under some pressure” as Chinese steelmakers try to curb their demand for iron ore before 2008 contract negotiations for the raw material, Rikard Vabo and Lars Erich Nilsen, Oslo-based analysts at Fearnley Fonds ASA, wrote in a note to clients on Wednesday.

The price of booking a capesize ship that would normally haul about 170,000 metric tons of iron ore or coal fell by $1,874 to $178,188 a day, according to the exchange.

Panamaxes fell by $797 to $80,657 a day; supramax and handysize rentals advanced.

The Baltic Exchange’s prices are used to settle contracts called forward freight agreements, or FFAs, that traders buy and sell to bet on, or hedge, the future cost of shipping.

Those contracts slipped for the first quarter of next year, said Dorian Benson, global head of dry freight at GFI Group Ltd. in Cape Town.

Capesize contracts traded at about $147,000 as of 1:30 p.m. London time, he said.

That’s about 2.6 percent below Wednesday’s closing price from SSY Futures Ltd. Panamax FFAs traded at about $70,500 a day for the same period, he said, compared with $73,000 a day at the close Tuesday, according to SSY data.

China Steel Steel exports from China, the world’s biggest producer of the alloy, tumbled 41 percent to 4.24 million metric tons a month in October from a record 7.16 million tons in July, according to China General Administration data.

Imports of iron ore, the key steelmaking ingredient, slumped 16 percent to 29.77 million tons over the same period.

China’s production of the alloy totaled 409 million tons during the first 10 months of this year, outpacing domestic demand, Risaburu Nezu, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development’s steel committee chairman, said in an e-mailed statement.

That output may be threatened by a slump in the US housing market, he said. (Bloomberg)

Japanese ship owners prefer Filipinos to man new ships

JAPAN shipping firms are pushing the country to reform some of its current systems on seafarers, from education to licensing, after fleet owners announced their preference for the Philippines to supply the crew for almost all of its newly built vessels.

ASIAN rates for oil-product tankers rose to the highest in more than 11 months on Japan’s declining inventories and rising demand for fuel by China amid shortages.

THE Baltic Dry Index, a measure of the cost of shipping commodities, ended five days of gains in London, led by a decline in the cost of hiring the largest carriers.

CHINA Shipping Container Lines Co., Asia’s second-largest container line, attracted 2.6 trillion yuan ($351 billion) worth of orders for its Shanghai stock sale, said three people familiar with the offering.