Freight rates for small fuel oil tankers in the Mediterranean have taken a long-anticipated hit. "Demand fell off a while back and there's been a build up of old ships, it was bound to happen," said a London tanker broker, who pegged the cross-Med trade for 30,000 tonners at around W185, compared to W210 two weeks ago. Italian brokers said on Wednesday that rates of W170-180 were currently the norm, and blamed holidays in Russia for a lack of fuel oil activity out of the Black Sea. Traders said on Tuesday that low sulfur was relatively balanced with little in the way of fresh demand and few if any cargoes now available. Cargoes were valued in the $129-$131 cif region. "Low sulfur seems to have been disappearing from the market," one regional trader said.