Routes & Markets
Guide to major dry bulk shipping routes and freight markets: trade lanes, port guides, and the indices that price them.
What this hub covers
Freight is priced by lane. The same vessel earns a different rate depending on where it loads, where it discharges, and how the ballast leg back to the next cargo looks. This hub maps the major dry bulk trade lanes and the markets that price them, so a cargo owner can see where a route sits in the wider flow of tonnage before asking for a rate.
The lane pages cover the main corridors: the transpacific iron ore and coal run into Asia, the transatlantic grain and ore trades, the Asia to Europe lane, and regional markets across West Africa, South America, the Caribbean, and the Middle East. The Baltic indices page explains how the benchmark freight assessments are built, and major ports covers the load and discharge terminals that anchor the lanes.
Who it is for and where to start
These pages are for traders and charterers who want the commercial shape of a lane, its typical cargoes, vessel classes, and the constraints that move the rate, rather than a live print. For a freight figure on a specific cargo, pair this hub with the rate calculator.
- Understand pricing first: the Baltic indices.
- Read a lane: transpacific or transatlantic.
- Estimate a voyage: the rate calculator.
For a market read on your specific route, tell us about your cargo and a broker will respond the same business day.
Asia-Europe Dry Bulk Route
How dry bulk moves between Europe and Asia: Suez versus Cape routing, the eastbound grain and scrap flow, and the thin westbound leg.
ExploreCaribbean Dry Bulk Route
How dry bulk moves through the Caribbean: a smaller regional multi-cargo corridor of pet coke, bauxite, sugar and grain shaped by the Panama Canal.
Baltic Freight Market
What the Baltic freight market is: how the Baltic Exchange assesses dry bulk routes, how the Baltic Dry Index and its component indices are built, and what the BDI signals.
Major Dry Bulk Ports Guide
A guide to the world's major dry bulk ports and terminals: the iron ore, coal and grain gateways that anchor the seaborne bulk trades, with main cargoes and the vessel classes each can load.
Middle East Dry Bulk Route
How dry bulk moves on the Arabian Gulf corridor: fertilizer, cement and clinker exports, grain and coal imports, vessel classes, ports and chokepoints.
Bulk Shipping Rate Calculator
A simple hire-based voyage calculator for dry bulk shipping: enter cargo, distance, and hire rate for an indicative cost per tonne.
South America Dry Bulk Route
How dry bulk moves on the South America corridor: Brazil iron ore to China and South American grain and soybeans to China and Europe.
Transatlantic Dry Bulk Route
How dry bulk moves across the Atlantic basin: balanced two-way grain, coal, pet coke and fertilizer flows, the load and discharge ports, and the chokepoints.
Transpacific Dry Bulk Route
The Pacific basin dry bulk corridor: Australia, Indonesia and US Pacific Northwest origins to China, Japan, Korea and Taiwan, by cargo and vessel class.
West Africa Dry Bulk Route
How dry bulk moves on the West Africa corridor: Guinea bauxite to China on Capesize and VLOC tonnage around the Cape of Good Hope.