Tanker Charter Rates News

Sub-continent markets have taken a turn for the worse this week, as collapsing steel prices in India and Eid holidays in Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Turkey have led to depressed sentiments and virtually no new offers emanating on any available tonnage.Most end users now want to wait-and watch-market developments before offering anew on vessels at far lower levels that seem more in line with the realistic $650s/LDT than the struggling $700s/LDT most in the industry were gunning for…

Chinese (Lunar) New Year holidays concluded this week and there appears to be a real spring in the step of industry players, as international ship recycling markets continue to push on once again, according to GMS.Both, Pakistan and Bangladesh, have been at the forefront of this recent resurgence, with an improved India (that is still unable to compete on any regular / non-HKC / non-specialist tonnage) and a relatively stable Turkey that has defied explanation for the most part…

According to GMS, itt has been an increasingly static week in the Indian sub-continent ship recycling markets, especially after some early 2022 optimism displayed by a resurgent India in particular.Sales on various specialist units soared this past week in Alang – with several stainless-steel chemical tankers, Russian fish factories, and a barge being committed at some extraordinary levels.Competing markets in both Pakistan and Bangladesh could only sit by and watch, with very few favored large LDT units to work on…

The last quarter jump in local steel plate prices (and at varying degrees) seems to have swept across all major recycling markets (including China) this week, according to recent market insights from GMS. The jump in levels varied from as little as $5/Ton from the Chinese market, all the way to $30/Ton on the Turkish end, with the sub-continent markets bridging the gap.Despite the dry sector continuing to perform surprisingly well and keeping the markets starved of bulker and container units…

Oil product tankers earnings have skyrocketed in the first half of 2020, while the sale and purchase (S&P) activity of the oil product tanker market has slowed to the lowest level since 2016. Data from VesselsValue highlight that in the first five months of 2020, only 2.8 million deadweight tons (DWT) of oil product tankers have shifted hands in the second-hand market, a 45% drop compared to the same period last year.A surprising S&P slowdown?The oil product tanker market has thereby experienced a disconnect in the first half of 2020 with high spot earnings…

Tanker charter rates have plunged more than 80% as the coronavirus outbreak slams the brakes on major economies, costing the sector hundreds of millions of dollars in lost business, a senior shipping industry official said.While some of the revenue is gone for good, a trade rebound could put the sector back into calmer waters later this year, International Chamber of Shipping (ICS) Secretary General Guy Platten told Reuters in an interview on Wednesday.The ICS is the main trade association for merchant shipowners and operators…

Five/six charterers are making storage inquiries; near-term pressure on tanker rates to continue - Frontline CEO. Freight rates for very large crude carriers (VLCCs) are set to hold around the current levels ahead of a possible bounce later this month on renewed crude buying from China, and more interest from charterers taking ships on short-term charter for floating storage, brokers said on Friday. That came as VLCC rates from the Middle East recovered slightly on Thursday from a near two-month low hit on Wednesday. "Rates are recovering to high 40s and touching 50s levels on the Worldscale measure," said Ashok Sharma, managing director of ship broker BRS Baxi in Singapore.

Time charter rates in the smaller chemical tanker vessel sizes are expected to remain stable over the next two years, but rates for the larger sizes, especially MRs, will decline due to the impact of falling clean petroleum products (CPP) freight rates, according to the latest edition of the Chemical Forecaster, published by global shipping consultancy Drewry. Weakened chemical tanker freight rates in the second quarter of 2016 have resulted in softer time charter rates. Drewry anticipates a modest improvement in the CPP market in the next two quarters, but expects chemical tanker freight rates to remain weak in the third quarter with a pick up in the fourth quarter of this year.

High rates have lured a significant number of tanker owners into forking out the relatively small costs associated with converting their ships from Category 1 to Category 2 vessels. Category 1 vessels are those of 20,000 dwt and above carrying crude, fuel, heavy or lubricating oils as cargo, and “pre Marpol” tankers of 30,000 dwt and more carrying other oils. Pre Marpol means ships that do not have protectively located segregated ballast tanks. Category 2 vessels, on the other hand, do have protectively located segregated ballast tanks. The net result, according to Norway’s Platou, is that some 30m dwt of vessels due to leave the fleet during 2005 will not now do so.

Double Hull Tankers Inc., which owns and operates a fleet of crude oil tankers, said Wednesday its second-quarter earnings rose 11 percent on strong charter rates and continued demand for its vessels. The company earned $7.4m, or 25 cents per share, compared with $6.7m, or 22 cents per share in the second quarter of 2006. Shipping revenues - or revenue less voyage expenses, a performance indicator for shipping companies - increased 7 percent to $20.7 million, from $19.4 million in the year-ago period. Analysts were expecting a profit of 26 cents per share on revenue of $20.5 million. The company attributed its gains to the continued strength of tanker charter rates and tanker demand in China. Source: AP

Middle East tanker charter rates, up more than 90 percent since the start of the year, appear to have reached a plateau, shippers said. Worldscale rates for chartering a very large crude carrier (VLCC) to transport two million barrels of crude oil from the Middle East to the U.S. Gulf now stand at W82.5-W85, compared with W42.5 at the beginning of January. To Japan rates have risen to W95-W100 from about W52.5. That means the cost of shipping oil to the U.S. has almost doubled to $2 a barrel and surged to $1.50 barrel for crude going to Asia from the Middle East - rates at their highest in two years. Tanker brokers now expect rates to plateau out a little below current levels over the summer until increased oil production coincides with winter restocking in the autumn.

Neptune Orient Lines Ltd. (NOL) expects a better second half and overall profit in the current year. NOL said the bottoming out of the Asian economic crisis had resulted in higher cargo volumes in most sectors. Freight rates out of Asia to Europe and North America had also increased since mid-year, it said in comments accompanying its result. NOL reported last Wednesday an interim net profit, the first time in two years, but results were disappointing as gains came mostly from non-recurring items. The national shipping giant reported a net profit of S$10.02 million for the six months ended June 30, 1999 against a net loss of S$240.76 million a year earlier.