03.08.2009
Used in wind turbines
Process of bituminizing; namely to convert into bitumen
The conversion of organic materials, such as plant or animal waste, into usable products or energy sources by biological processes or agents, such as certain microorganisms
The Baltic Dry Index is a daily average of prices to ship raw materials. It represents the cost paid by an end customer to have a shipping company transport raw materials across seas on the Baltic Exchange, the global marketplace for brokering shipping contracts. The Baltic Exchange is similar to the New York Merc in that it is a medium for buyers and sellers of contracts and forward agreements (futures) for delivery of dry bulk cargo. The Baltic is owned and operated by the member buyers and sellers. The exchange maintains prices on several routes for different cargoes and then publishes its own index, the BDI, as a summary of the entire dry bulk shipping market. This index can be used as an overall economic indicator as it shows where end prices are heading for items that use the raw materials that are shipped in dry bulk. The BDI is one of the purest leading indicators of economic activity.
In 2008 the average cost of oil was $99.57 a barrel. The world was then consuming some 88mm barrels of crude a day, that amounted to a total annualized cost of $3,200bn. By mid 2009, the average price of crude oil had fallen to about $50 a barrel. Just this item represented an annualized saving of $1,600bn. The table below shows the Annual Average Crude Oil Price from 1946 to 2008. Prices are adjusted for inflation to November 2008 prices using the Consumer Price Index. The average price for Brent oil per barrel for 2009 was $60.94.