US Oil Imports in Freefall, Force Shipping Rates Down

Growing U.S. energy independence is driving the biggest drop in crude imports in two decades and rates for the oil tankers most reliant on the shipments to the weakest in at least 16 years, reports Bloomberg.

Citing shipbrokers Clarkson, Bloomberg add that seabourne imports will decline 11 percent to 5.4 million barrels a day in 2013, the largest slide since at least 1991.

Suezmaxes hauling 1 million-barrel cargoes earned $10,652 a day this year, the least since 1997, its data show. The rate is 55 percent less than Euronav NV says it needs to break even on the 22 tankers it owns. Shares of the company will fall 8.3 percent in a year, the average of six analyst estimates compiled by Bloomberg shows.

Source: Bloomberg