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Mid-East VLCC surplus halves |
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Thursday, 11 March 2010 |
 The supply of supertankers competing for two million barrel shipments of Middle East crude more than halved as demand gained and owners sent empty vessels to West Africa for higher returns.
There are 14 per cent more very large crude carriers, or VLCCs, for hire
over the next 30 days than there are cargoes, according to the median
estimate of four shipbrokers and two owners surveyed by Bloomberg News. A
week ago, the surplus stood at 29 per cent. Sailing a ship empty is
called ballasting.
'There was continued demand last week, especially
from Chinese charterers,' Charlie Fowle, a director at London-based
shipbroker Galbraith's Ltd, said by e-mail on Monday. Two ships
travelled empty to West Africa to collect cargoes for shipment to Asia,
removing the carriers from the Middle East, he said.
Rental income
from the Saudi Arabia to Japan voyage, a route that's used to settle
freight derivatives, gained 2.1 per cent to US$39,580 a day on Monday,
according to data from the London-based Baltic Exchange. Before Monday,
it climbed for three straight weeks.
Owners shipping West African
crude oil to Asia can make US$30,135 a day more than they would for
delivering consignments from the Middle East, according to data from New
York-based shipbroker Poten & Partners.
Tanker charters are
mostly negotiated on a round-trip basis. Sailing to China and back from
West Africa takes about 57 days assuming a speed of 15 knots, according
to data on the World-register.net website. A round trip to China from
Saudi Arabia would require about 34 days.
Of the six respondents to
the survey, five said that the supply of ships fell relative to their
last estimates, while the sixth said that it remained unchanged.
Rental
income from suezmaxes that ship one million barrel cargoes fell 3.1 per
cent to US$29,995 a day.
Aframaxes that haul 650,000 barrels added
3.2 per cent to US$7,232 daily, their first gain in five sessions.
Source:
Bloomberg
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