Chris Reilly, the head of shipbroker BRS London, describes as “nonsense” accusations from an anonymous Twitter account that the Baltic Exchange is rigging indices to benefit charterers.

“Anyone who attacks the Baltic indices is by extension attacking the 30-odd shipbroking companies who provide the raw material for the indices,” said Reilly.

He says the suggestion of a dark plot to manipulate the market is “just another example of fake news, which, of course, is nothing new to the freight market.”

Baltic Exchange under fire from anonymous Twitter campaign
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A new Twitter account ActionBaltic argues that the indices are kept deliberately low to the advantage of “all powerful charterers.”

“This nonsense about a rigged market from ActionBaltic (whoever they are) clearly comes from someone who has absolutely no idea how the physical freight market works, nor how panel brokers do their jobs,” Reilly told TradeWinds.

He says he can understand why there are many people in the market, both physical and FFAs, who are frustrated that the market has gone against them.

“All of them are our clients and we can sympathise with them for their losses. But accusing the Baltic Exchange of manipulation is just ridiculous,” he added.

“It is part of the job of Baltic panel brokers to sift rumour and false reports from facts in order to make the assessments we provide to the Baltic Exchange every day, as we have been doing for decades.”

Reilly says many “all powerful charterers” in fact complain that the indices are marked too high and accuse the panel brokers of “keeping levels high for their own ends as brokers are naturally long.”

He said: “It cannot be simultaneously true that we are manipulating the market by keeping the indices low and at the same time keeping them high.”

Concluded Reilly: “It’s an imperfect world and the present system is the best we have come up with so far to ensure independent, accurate assessments of the spot market since 1985 and the creation of robust indices, coordinated and overseen by the Baltic Exchange who provide the checks and balances to make sure they are as good as can be.”