Baltic Exchange
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| Baltic Exchange | |
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| Type | Futures exchange |
| Location | London, United Kingdom |
| Owner | Co-operative |
| Key people | Jeremy Penn (CEO) |
| Currency | USD |
| Indexes | Baltic Dry Index Baltic Panamax Index Baltic Capesize Index Baltic Handymax Index Baltic Tanker Dirty Index Baltic Tanker Clean Index |
| Website | www.balticexchange.com |
The Baltic Exchange is a British company that operates the premier global marketplace for shipbrokers, ship owners and charterers. The company was founded in the mid-eighteenth century. The first use of the name was at the Virginia and Baltick Coffee House in Threadneedle Street in 1744, and was registered as a private limited company with shares in 1900. Today the exchange is owned by its member companies and is not publicly traded on a stock exchange. It is operated by a member-elected Board of Directors. It has 20 employees and is located at 38 St Mary Axe in central London.
The exchange provides daily freight market prices and maritime shipping cost indices, and a market for freight futures (known as Forward Freight Agreements or FFAs), as well as port information, and serves as a sea-vessel marketplace and a venue for dispute resolution. Originally operating a trading floor, the exchange's transactions are today done solely over the telephone.
The exchange publishes six daily indices:
- Baltic Dry Index
- Baltic Panamax Index (BPI)
- Baltic Capesize Index (BCI)
- Baltic Handymax Index (BHMI)
- Baltic Tanker Dirty Index
- Baltic Tanker Clean Index
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[edit] Current management
As of November, 2004, the current management includes:
- Chief Executive: Jeremy Penn
- Head of Finance and Company Secretary: Mark Soutter
- Communications: Bill Lines
[edit] BIFFEX
BIFFEX, the Baltic International Freight Futures Exchange - was a London-based exchange for trading ocean freight futures contracts with settlement based on the Baltic 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 Commodity Clearing House), later renamed LCH (London Clearing House). 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.
[edit] The former Baltic Exchange building
The historic building was built in 1903 by Smith and Wimble and had been listed as a Grade II* listed building.[1]
[edit] Bombing of the exchange building
On April 10, 1992 the facade of the Exchange's offices at 30 St Mary Axe was partially demolished, and the rest of the building was extensively damaged in a Provisional Irish Republican Army bomb attack. The bomb was contained in a large white truck and consisted of a fertilizer device wrapped with a detonation cord made from Semtex. It killed three people: Paul Butt, 29, Baltic Exchange employee, Thomas Casey, 49, and 15-year old Danielle Carter.
The bomb also caused damage to surrounding buildings, many of which were also badly damaged by the Bishopsgate bombing the following year. The bomb caused £800 million worth of damage, £200 million more than the total damaged caused by the 10,000 explosions that had occurred during the Troubles in Northern Ireland up to that point.[2]
Architectural conservationists wanted to reconstruct what remained from the bombing, as it was the last remaining exchange floor in the City of London. English Heritage, the government's statutory conservation adviser, and the City of London Corporation insisted that any redevelopment must restore the building's old façade on to St Mary Axe. Baltic Exchange, unable to afford such an expensive undertaking alone, sold the site to Trafalgar House in 1995. The remaining sculptures and masonry of the structurally unstable facade block on the site were photographed and dismantled before the sale; the interior of the Exchange Hall, which was regarded as stable was initially sealed from the elements in the hope that it would be preserved in situ in any new development, but were subsequently dismantled and stored offsite in 1995-1996.
English Heritage later discovered the damage was far more severe than they had previously thought. Accordingly, they stopped insisting on a full restoration. What remained of Exchange Hall was completely razed in 1998 with the permission of the planning minister John Prescott, over the objections of architectural preservationists, including Save Britain's Heritage who sought a judicial review of his decision.
30 St Mary Axe is now home to the building commissioned by Swiss Re, commonly referred to as "the Gherkin".
The stained glass of the Baltic Exchange war memorial, which had only suffered superficial damage in the bomb blast, has now been restored and is in the National Maritime Museum
[edit] Architectural salvage
Its classic red granite, coloured marble, Portland stone, and much of the original plaster interiors that survived the bomb were first stored in a Reading warehouse before being sold in 2003 to salvage dealer Derek Davies, who moved them to Cheshire. Davies put the elements on SalvoWEB in February 2003, finally selling the 1,000 tonnes or more to salvage dealer Dennis Buggins in late 2005. Buggins then moved the elements from Cheshire to various barns around Canterbury in Kent.[3]
[edit] Sale of building
In June 2006 an Estonian businessman, Eerik-Niiles Kross, found the ad for the Baltic Exchange on SalvoWEB whilst trawling the web for reclaimed flooring [4]. He and his business partner Heiti Hääl bought the Baltic Exchange elements for £800,000 [5] from Dennis Buggins of Extreme Architecture, and the 49 containers were shipped via Felixstowe to Tallinn in June 2007 [6] where the exchange will be rebuilt in Central Tallinn. Construction is stated to start in 2008.
[edit] Notes
- ^ http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/6230390.stm Extreme Restoration article on BBC News website 5 July 2007
- ^ De Baróid, Ciarán (2000). Ballymurphy And The Irish War. Pluto Press, p. 325. ISBN 0-7453-1509-7.
- ^ Pavilions of Splendour
- ^ Historic London building to be reassembled in central Tallinn
- ^ [http://salvonews.blogspot.com/2007/09/extreme-architectural-auction-sale-at.html Extreme architectural auction sale]
- ^ SalvoWEB : Search results for "baltic exchange" in News - page 1
[edit] References
- Huber, Mark (2001). "Ch. 9:Chartering and Operations", Tanker operations: a handbook for the person-in-charge (PIC). Cambridge, MD: Cornell Maritime Press. ISBN 0-87033-528-6.
- Turpin, Edward A.; McEwen, William A. (1980). "Ch. 18:United States Navigation Laws and Ship's Business", Merchant Marine Officers' Handbook. Centreville, MD: Cornell Maritime Press. ISBN 0-87038-056-X.
[edit] External links
- Official web site
- Baltic Exchange at Yahoo Finance
- Old Baltic Exchange building
- Some pictures of the wreckage
- SalvoWEB: Several news stories about the Baltic Exchange sale
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