Baltic Dry Index Nervous Over Pirate Activity

Just when you thought that things couldn't get much worse for the Baltic Dry Index, along comes two Somali hijackings in the space of a couple of days.

First we had the Sirius Star, carrying 100 million dollars of oil. Now we have the Hong Kong-flagged Delight carrying 36,000 tonnes of wheat to Iran's Bandar Abbas port.

The BDI was at 865 in late trade Tuesday, down 40% in a month and an incredible 93% down from it's high of 11,793 on 21st May this year.

Somali pirate activity could lead to even fewer fixtures, and a further softening of freight rates elsewhere in the world as shipowners look to avoid the Gulf of Aden.

The Royal Navy earlier handed over eight Somali pirates to Kenyan authorities to prosecute after they were captured at sea last week.

The HMS Cumberland spotted a dhow which had been identified in an attempt to hijack a Danish vessel, the MV Powerful.

The British vessel attempted to stop the dhow but an exchange of fire broke out in which two suspected Somali pirates were killed by Royal Marines.