The BDI is a measure of the price of moving raw materials by sea and is issued daily by the London-based Baltic Exchange.

The index has fluctuated wildly over the past year, plunging from 11,793 points in May 2008 to 663 points in December, as the world economy slowed.

According to Bloomberg, the BDI jumped 15% to 1316 points yesterday in its best start to the year since 1986 and the number of idled capesize vessels dropped to near zero, signalling a recovery in the iron ore market.

Capesize rates hit a record low of $US2316 a day in early December and have since increased to $21,810 per day, the highest since October.

Panamax rates jumped 14% to $8005 per day.

BHP Billiton chief executive officer Marius Kloppers told reporters yesterday the iron ore spot price had jumped back up to near benchmark levels, indicating that steelmakers may be replenishing stocks.

“BHP believes that the de-stocking in iron ore is practically complete, which we would support because we have access to some data which comes out of Beijing that has been telling us now for some months that the demand for spot iron ore is increasing and the spot prices have actually increased dramatically over the last couple of months,” DJ Carmichael head of research Paul Adams told MiningNews.net.

“That would seem to indicate to us the fact that BHP is right in that assumption that de-stocking probably is more or less complete.”