Asia Tankers-VLCC Rates Slump
Freight rates for very large crude carriers (VLCCs) could face drop further next week on excess tonnage supply and lower cargo volumes, reports Reuters.
A Singapore based VLCC broker said that there’s no upside. Rates will either be flat or on the downside. There are many more ships than cargo, the broker said.
While ship owners and charterers are expected to conclude more charters later on Friday, “charterers may hold back until next week on the expectation rates could fall,” the broker said.
With rates from the Middle East to Japan around 62 on the Worldscale measure, the broker thought shipowners would try to resist charterers pushing rates much below W60. Around 24 supertanker cargoes have been fixed to load crude from the Middle East in the first 10 days in November, against 127 for the whole of October, brokers said.
The start of the November (loading) programme in the Middle East has been very slow and volumes are lagging way behind the activity we saw at the start in October, Norwegian ship broker Fearnley said in a note.
