Baltic Dry Index Keeps On Plunging!!

Previous blogged on the Baltic Dry Index.

1. Views On Current Weakness On Baltic Dry Index
2. The Collapse of the Baltic Dry Index
3. Goldman Downgrades Bulk Shippers!
4. Baltic Dry Index Keeps Falling!
5. Baltic Dry Index Stages Strong Rebound!
6. Baltic Dry Index Set For Strong Recovery???
7. Baltic Dry Index Plunges To Seven Month Lows!
8. The Baltic Dry Index Keeps On Plunging!

Here's yet another update on the Baltic Dry Index.

The Index had yet another horror story last Friday plunging another 10% pr 417 points.

Index is now at 3746!

And with such a plunge, shipping stocks across Asia fell too!

• Sept. 29 (Bloomberg) -- Mitsui O.S.K. Lines Ltd., Japan's largest operator of iron-ore ships, dropped in Tokyo trading along with domestic rivals, as rates for carrying commodities had their biggest slump on record.
  
  The shipping line declined as much as 4.8 percent to 901 yen and traded at 909 yen as of 9:17 a.m. in Tokyo. Nippon Yusen K.K., Japan's biggest shipping line by sales, dropped as much as 3.8 percent and Kawasaki Kisen Kaisha Ltd., the third-largest, slid as much as 4.8 percent.
  
  The Baltic Dry Index, a measure of commodity-shipping rates, dropped 10 percent on Sept. 26, as Chinese steelmakers stopped buying iron-ore from Brazil's Cia. Vale do Rio Doce as part of a pricing standoff. The index has tumbled 80 percent since a peak in June.
  
  ``There's no strength left to even muster a rebound,'' said Yoshihisa Miyamoto, an analyst in Tokyo at Okasan Securities Co. ``This week shipping lines are set for a punch that will put to rest anyone left that wants to buy.''
  
  Chinese steelmakers, the world's biggest iron-ore consumers, won't buy from Vale in the ``short term,'' the China Iron and Steel Association said Sept. 26. Vale wants to raise prices for Asian mills to match what European clients are paying. The association says that's ``unreasonable'' because of slowing steel demand from automakers and builders.

Some noteworthy points.

1. Index has plunged 80% since its peak in June!!!

2. Slowing steel demands!

And yes many are seeing their investments plunged due to their investments in shipping stocks.

Makes one wonder.

Is investing to be blamed or should one be realistic enough to understand that perhaps they did not understand the nature of business or the business economics of the business they had invested in?

And of course, some are still holding on to their investments, refusing to accept what has happened. Some call it being in denial mode. I wonder if they realise that there is a probability that perhaps this shipping index would never reach anyway near its peak again. A probability but on the other hand, who am I to say, it would never?