The Baltic Exchange's main sea freight index, which tracks rates for ships carrying dry commodities, fell on Friday for a third day due to weakness in dry bulk shipments and analysts expect that a rebound is unlikely in the near term.

The overall index, which reflects the daily freight market prices for capesize, panamax, supramax and handysize dry bulk transport vessels, fell 8 points or 0.7 percent to 1,138 points.
The index lost more than two percent this week, its first weekly fall since February.

The Baltic's capesize index lost 0.25 percent to 1,614 points.

Rates for capesizes, which typically transport 150,000 tonne cargoes such as iron ore and coal, were down $109 at $8,660.

"Over the longer term, increase in freight rates is likely to be curtailed owing to high level of Chinese iron ore inventory and significantly high fleet addition over the next two years," ICICI Securities said in a research note.

Fixture activity for the capesize segment slowed as the week progressed, RS Platou Markets analysts said in a note.