Hire costs for the biggest oil tankers plying the industry’s busiest trade route climbed for a sixth session amid speculation more ships will be chartered to help meet summer-season demand.
Hire costs for the biggest oil tankers plying the industry’s busiest trade route climbed for a sixth session amid speculation more ships will be chartered to help meet summer-season demand. Booking rates for very large crude carriers on the benchmark Saudi Arabia-to-Japan voyage rose 1 percent to 34.34 industry-standard Worldscale points, figures from the London-based Baltic Exchange showed today. Costs are the highest since Jan. 23, according to the data. The surplus of vessels available to load in the Persian Gulf over the next four weeks declined by seven to 77, according to data from Marex Spectron Group. That compares with 89 tankers at the start of the month, the figures showed. VLCCs outnumbered cargoes by 25 percent as of March 5, the most since Oct. 4, 2011, according to a Bloomberg News survey of shipbrokers. “We see the potential for a short-term surge in activity for those starting to position for driving season/summer demand,” Erik Nikolai Stavseth, an analyst at Oslo-based investment bank Arctic Securities ASA, said in an e-mailed report today. FULL STORY
