Analysts and individual investors may get frenzy whenever there's a decline posted in the prices of commodities, but the low rates are actually attractive come-ons to further purchase the products.

Notwithstanding the five-month price collapse of most raw materials, the cost of transporting iron ore, coal and grains by sea jumped to its highest record this year, a proof that consumers all the more acquire the goods to ensure adequate stockpile inventory.

The London-based Baltic Exchange on Monday said the Baltic Dry Index, which computes charter costs for four classes of vessel, grew 1.6 percent to 2,032 points, the highest since December. Daily returns on capesizes, the largest section of the index, showed a sixfold upsurge from the end of February, soaring by as much as 2.2 percent to $28,483.

The Baltic Exchange distributes charges for more than 50 maritime routes.

Since February, prices of iron ore, the biggest commodity transported by ships in the Baltic Dry Index, have slid 13 percent, fuelled by prices in China. China is the commodity's largest consumer, which it uses to make steel.

Meanwhile, customs data showed iron ore imports by China grew for two consecutive months and to the highest since January.

The world's second-largest economy accounts for about two in every five metric tons of global steel production. Based from the median of 10 economists' estimates compiled by Bloomberg, the country is projected to grow 9.3 percent this year and 8.7 percent in 2012. At least 62% of all seaborne iron ore supply is purchased by China.

"Gloom and doom makes key commodity prices go down which means the buying of those commodities is more attractive," Georgi Slavov, head of freight and basic resources research at ICAP Shipping International Ltd. in London told Bloomberg.

Shipping costs also advanced for all four vessel types that the Baltic Dry Index tracks. Panamaxes, the largest to steer through the Panama Canal, rose 1.5 percent to $15,561 a day. Smaller supramaxes grew 0.8 percent to $16,150 and handysizes gained 1.5 percent to $11,435.