Shipbroker Expects Clean Tanker Market to Weaken Moving Forward

Shipbroker Intermodal is expecting weakness in the product tanker market moving forward. In its latest weekly report, Intermodal said that “as we are approaching the summer season, the Clean Product market appears poised to become more challenging, either on East or West of Suez”.

The shipbroker’s Tanker Chartering Broker, Mr. George Vastardis noted that “looking towards the East of Suez and in particular the Middle Eastern Clean MRs over the previous week, we notice that quite healthy activity has pushed rates slightly up. This led to short hauls cross MEG at mid-high $100k levels, which translates to a $20k increase from the previous week. Distillates to E. Africa moved up at around WS137 (basis 35,000mt), whereas Naphtha lifts ex-WC India to Japan firmed and settled around WS122 levels. However, deliveries to UK Continent remained at mid $800k levels, which is quite stable”, he said.

Meanwhile, “quite healthy activity was also noticed in the North Far East clean MR market. Routes from S. Korea to Singapore improved to high $200k levels along with similar trades in Northern Far East short haul voyages. Moreover, the S. Korea to E.C Australia route also firmed at around WS180 (basis 35,000mt) , while if healthy demand resumes this week we might witness even better rates in the Northern Asian trade. On the contrary, South Asia activity softened. More specifically, cross-Singapore traded at around $90k to $95k levels and Singapore to S. China routes are still trading at low-mid $200k levels with tonnage availability not assisting recovery in the sector”, Vastardis said.

He added that “moving on to the LR market it seems that earnings are still under pressure with charterers gaining additional market control in the past days. TC1 (MEG/Japan) traded at around WS90 levels (basis 75,000mt) and TC5 (MEG/Japan) at around WS97 levels (basis 55,000mt), which translates to a decrease of around WS15 points for both segments in a week’s time. Deliveries to UK Continent for LR2s traded at around $1.3m levels and for LR1s at around $1.05m levels. It is therefore evident that the LR market seems unable to find a stable footing at least until the end of May also taking into consideration the beginning of the Ramadan by the end of this week”.

“On the other hand the Western clean MR market seems to be more promising over the past week, especially for the lifts ex ARA to Transatlantic voyages, as healthy business volumes together with a few replacements shrunk the tonnage list. Similar to the MRs, Handies also witnessed an upward movement that lead to cross Continent rates at around WS125 levels (basis 35,000mt) and Baltic lifts (basis 30,000mt) being fixed at around WS13- to WS132.5. Continuing with the Mediterranean market, despite the fact that some action was witnessed over the past week, rates ended the week below WS135 levels, which translates to a decrease of WS5 points compared to previous weeks, with lifts ex Black Sea getting the usual w10 point premium”, said Vastardis.

He went on to note that “moving on to the Western LR1 marker, things have not been very exciting either, as lack of demand left freights sliding accordingly, with voyages from ARA to West Africa hovering at around WS100 points. Deliveries to the Middle East were at around $1.0m and to Singapore discharge at around $1.3m. The LR2 market also experienced even slower demand compared to previous weeks that led to freights ex ARA to MEG at $1.15m and $1.37m to Singapore discharge, enabling us to assess for a typical naphtha employment from MED to Japan at around $1.6m levels. To conclude, even though refineries maintenance in the Far East has been completed and reasonably everyone is expecting more action ahead, our expectations remain fairly low especially for the Eastern Market, unless we witness significant signs of recovery on the bigger sizes”, Intermodal’s analyst concluded.