A "very quiet" bulker market has pushed the Baltic Exchange's key index to its lowest level in well over three years.

The Baltic Dry Index (BDI) dropped seven points to 539 on Tuesday, with the capesize index falling six to 129 and panamaxes off 22 points at 651.

The BDI figure is the lowest since April 2016.

The London exchange was quoting time-charter rates for capesizes at $4,631 per day as an average of its five routes, down a dollar from Monday, while panamaxes were $193 lower at $5,861.