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Qte

Nov 27 (Reuters) - The Baltic Exchange's main sea freight index, which tracks rates for ships carrying dry commodities, rose on Tuesday helped by slightly higher rates for panamax ships.
The overall index, which reflects daily freight market prices for capesize, panamax, supramax and handysize dry bulk transport vessels, rose 0.27 percent to 1,097 points.

The panamax index rose 0.2 percent, with average daily earnings up $10 at $8,163.
Panamaxes typically transport 60,000-70,000 tonne cargoes of coal or grain.

Sentiment for panamax vessels remains positive overall for the next few weeks but could change if we do not see any new shipments hit the market, said Andy Jamison, shipping blogger and owner of the Virtual Shipbroker.

Pre-winter stocking has taken place and coal inventories are up in China, Jamison said.
After a positive couple of weeks there seems to be a softer feeling to the Atlantic market, Jamison said.

However, he expects the panamax market to hold up a little longer as there is still a plenty of operators in the market for coal stems.

The Baltic's capesize index fell two points to 2,275 points.

Average daily earnings for capesizes, which usually transport 150,000 tonne cargoes such as iron ore and coal, were down $66 at $16,291.

Shanghai steel futures touched two-month lows on Tuesday as winter reduced demand from the construction sector in top consumer China and sent spot prices for raw material iron ore to their weakest since October.

Iron ore shipments account for around a third of seaborne volumes on the larger capesizes, and brokers said price developments remained a key factor for dry freight.
Average daily earnings for handysize ships were up $70 at $6,468, while those of supramax ships were up $102 at $7760.

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