Freight & Shipping Indices
Dry-bulk and container freight benchmarks — the prices that move with real global trade — available through one REST API alongside oil, gas and marine fuel data.
Baltic Dry Index
BDIBaltic Dry Index (BDI) is a daily benchmark of the cost to move dry-bulk raw materials (iron ore, coal, grain) by sea, built from Capesize, Panamax and Supramax route rates.
Baltic Capesize Index
BCIBaltic Capesize Index (BCI) is the daily spot freight rate for Capesize vessels — the largest dry-bulk carriers, used mainly for iron ore and coal on long-haul routes.
Shanghai Containerized Freight Index
SCFIShanghai Containerized Freight Index (SCFI) is weighted container spot freight rates from Shanghai to major world ports, the leading East-bound/West-bound container rate benchmark (base 1000 = October 2009).
Drewry World Container Index
WCIDrewry World Container Index (WCI) is a composite container spot freight rate in US dollars per 40-foot container across eight major East-West trade routes.
What are freight and shipping indices?
Freight and shipping indices are benchmark measures of the cost to move cargo by sea. They split into two families: dry-bulk indices (the Baltic Dry Index and its Capesize component), which track the cost of shipping raw materials like iron ore, coal and grain; and container indices (the Shanghai Containerized Freight Index and the Drewry World Container Index), which track the cost of shipping boxed manufactured goods. Because a shipping fixture is a committed, real-money transaction, these indices are widely used as leading indicators of global trade demand — they move with physical activity rather than financial speculation.
How often is each freight index published?
Publish cadence varies by index, which matters for anyone polling the API or building alerts:
- BDI — Every London business day (daily), published by Baltic Exchange.
- BCI — Every London business day (daily), published by Baltic Exchange.
- SCFI — Weekly, published every Friday, published by Shanghai Shipping Exchange.
- WCI — Weekly, published every Thursday, published by Drewry.
The dry-bulk indices update every business day; the container indices update once a week. Poll on the index's cadence rather than every minute, and treat weekly indices as fresh for about eight days.
How do I access freight index data via API?
Request any freight index from the OilPriceAPI REST endpoint with the by_code parameter. For example, to get the latest Baltic Dry Index value:
curl "https://api.oilpriceapi.com/v1/prices/latest?by_code=BALTIC_DRY_INDEX" \ -H "Authorization: Token YOUR_API_KEY"
Swap the code for BALTIC_CAPESIZE_INDEX, SCFI_INDEX or CONTAINER_FREIGHT_COMPOSITE_USD (the Drewry WCI composite — DREWRY_WCI_USD is still accepted as an alias). A free API key covers the latest value for every index.
Add format=csv to any of these requests and the endpoint answers with the content type text/csv and a header row instead of JSON.
When freight indices are not the right data
Used by maritime data teams
Shipping International (aajs.com) streams the Baltic Dry, Baltic Capesize, Drewry WCI and SCFI indices live on its public freight desk, alongside marine bunker benchmarks for Rotterdam, Singapore and Houston and a live fuel spread computed from the same feed. See more on our customer showcase.
One API for freight, energy & marine fuel data
Get live freight index data alongside oil, gas and bunker fuel benchmarks. Start with a free API key.