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| Type | Maritime membership and data organisation |
|---|---|
| Location | City of London,England |
| Founded | 1744 |
| Owner | SGX |
| Key people | Guy Hindley(Chairman) Mark Jackson(CEO) Janet Sykes(CCO) Mark Read(CFO) |
| Currency | GBP |
| Indices | Baltic Dry Index Baltic Panamax Index Baltic Capesize Index Baltic Supramax Index Baltic Handysize Index Baltic Dirty Tanker Index Baltic Clean Tanker Index |
| Website | balticexchange |
TheBaltic Exchange (incorporated asThe Baltic Exchange Limited[1]) is a Britishfinancial services company andmembership organisation for themaritime industry, andfreight market information provider for the trading and settlement ofchartering andderivativecontracts.
Situated sinceEdwardian times at24-28 St Mary Axe in theCity of London, the building wasdestroyed by a bomb in 1992. Its headquarters are now at 77Leadenhall Street, with further offices in Europe, across Asia, and in the United States.
Its international community of 650 member companies encompasses the majority ofworld shipping interests and commits to acode of business conduct overseen by the Baltic Exchange:[2] its members are responsible for a large proportion of all dry cargo and tanker fixtures as well as the sale and purchase of merchant vessels.[3]
The Baltic Exchange traces itsroots back to 1744 at theVirginia and Baltick Coffee House onThreadneedle Street, near theRoyal Exchange. With the rapid expansion of Britain's network of global trade,London's mercantile coffee houses operated as a maritime commercial node for communication and business. As British influence in trade toVirginia began to wane afterAmerican Independence, focus shifted toRussian Empire and other emerging markets.[4]
Incorporated as aprivate limited company withshares owned by its members on 17 January 1900, the Baltic Exchange was acquired in November 2016 by theSingapore Exchange (SGX) and remains headquartered in London.[citation needed]
Theexchange provides daily freight market prices and maritime shipping cost indices which are used to guide freight traders as to the current level of various global shipping markets, as well as being used to set freight contract rates and settlefreight futures (known asForward freight agreements or FFAs). Historically operating on itstrading floor, Baltic members' transactions are nowadays primarily conducted via other means of communication (eg. telephone, e-mail, instant messagingetc), althoughface-to-face client meetings remain integral to buildingtrust.
The exchange is the source of market-wide information and publishes seven dailyindices made up from a suite of "wet" (oil tanker) and "dry" (bulk carrier) bench-marked time-charter and voyage routes:
In April 2018, the Baltic Exchange announced a globalcontainer index called theFreightos Baltic Index (FBX)[5] in partnership withFreightos. Liquified natural gas (LNG) assessments launched in 2019.[6]
The exchange also provides forward curves, a dry cargo fixture list, sale and purchase values, LPG & LNG assessments, daily market news, and the market settlement data for freight derivative contracts.
BIFFEX, theBaltic International Freight Futures Exchange, was a London-based exchange for trading ocean freight futures contracts with settlement based on theBaltic Freight Index. It started trading dry cargo freight futures contracts in 1985, and was modestly successful for some years. All contracts were cleared by the ICCH (International Commodities Clearing House), later renamed London Clearing House and nowLCH.Clearnet. A tanker freight futures contract was introduced in 1986, but never became popular and was suspended indefinitely the same year. Volumes in the dry cargo contracts dwindled over the years, and the contracts ceased trading due to lack of liquidity in 2001.
As of 2025, the Baltic Exchange's management comprises:
Past chairmen include:[9]
The exchange was historically located at24–28 St Mary Axe in theCity of London until it wasdestroyed in 1992 by a terrorist bomb attack.
The grandeur of the Baltic'sinterior is depicted byJoseph Finnemore'ssteel engraving in 1918 of its Exchange Hall trading floor.
Now based at 77Leadenhall Street, London EC3, the Baltic Exchange has further offices in Europe, Asia, and the United States.
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