Quote from trefoil:
You must think we're all fools.
If you zoom out to 5 years, the graph you see looks a lot like gold in, say, the mid-nineties: a huge bubble followed by a huge bust followed by a long phase of consolidation.
My guess (I'm not a shipping magnate, so I don't know if this is true or not, but it sure looks this way) is that a bunch of guys jumped in and built new ships when this index was on its way up in 06, 07 and 08, and all those ships are now being used now, which is preventing rates from recovering back to where they were in those years.
In other words, high prices were the cure for high prices. Happens in all kinds of markets all the time. No reason for this one to be any different.
...and a minute on Google reveals (http://seekingalpha.com/article/258...provides-little-insight-into-shippers-returns):
The dry shipping industry has been hit hard by oversupply stemming from several strong years and declining demand due to the recession. This supply/demand imbalance has largely manifested itself in a weakening (and strangely volatile) Baltic Dry Index (BDI).
Sheesh.