Black Sea-Med dirty Handysize freight rates at lowest levels in 2015 on light inquiry
Rates on the Black Sea-Med route, basis 30,000 mt, were assessed Worldscale 5 lower at w150 Thursday.
This equates to $18.71/mt, the lowest since an $18.61/mt assessment on October 31.
Sources have said that a slowdown in the number of cargoes entering the market in recent weeks had caused a huge oversupply of Handysize tankers in the Black Sea and Med.
“Looking at the tonnage lists I can’t see any comeback for the owners in the short term. There is very little inquiry, certainly not enough to clear up the oversupply of ships,” a shipbroker said.
The huge number of available vessels has severely dented sentiment in the market, with little hope of too much of a rise in rates in the near future.
“The market is in free fall, it’s absolutely miserable,” a second shipbroker said.
One potential ray of light for owners is that many of the cargoes this week were market quotes — where a charterer quotes the cargo to its panel of brokers, who then set about collecting orders from a wide range of owners. This contrasts with private cargoes where typically only one charterer, one owner and one broker are involved.
On a market quote, as there are more offers from shipowners, it is often possible for the charterer to obtain a lower freight rate.
“The market could be slightly stronger than it seems now, it’s being judged on the basis of a few market quotes,” a third shipbroker said. “But it’s still hard not to call it at those sort of levels in the absence of any other activity.”