The Baltic Exchange’s main sea freight index, which tracks rates for ships carrying dry bulk commodities, edged up on Wednesday as rates for large capesize as well as relatively smaller handysize and supramax vessels rose. The index, which factors in the average daily earnings of capesize, panamax, supramax and handysize dry bulk transport vessels, rose one point, or 0.17 percent, to 598 points. The capesize index rose seven points, or 1.56 percent, to 455 points. Average daily earnings for capesizes, which typically transport 150,000-tonne cargoes such as iron ore and coal, rose $28 to $4,320. “Although official average daily earnings stand at an already poor $4,300 for 180,000-tonners, actual figures for the trading capesize fleet are substantially lower,” ship broker Fearnleys said in a note on Wednesday. “The problem is and remains a grotesque oversupply of tonnage.” The panamax index fell seven points, or 1.15 percent, to 602 points. Average daily earnings for panamaxes, which usually carry 60,000- to 70,000-tonne cargoes of coal or grain, fell $54 to $4,823. The indexes for relatively smaller vessels, handysize and supramax, were up two points at 390 points and three points at 648 points respectively. The grain season is picking up in South America giving support to the increasing freight level of handysize vessels, Fearnleys said.