Tanker Rates Double as Russia Ships Oil Through Baltic Sea Ice

Time:2013-04-10 Browse:49 Author:RISINGSUN
Rates for tankers in the Baltic Sea doubled in the past week to a two-year high as demand for oil shipments increased amid icy conditions, according to Fearnley Securities AS.


Daily earnings for Aframaxes hauling about 650,000 barrels of crude oil rose to $29,916 yesterday, compared with $14,452 a week earlier, according to the Baltic Exchange, the London-based publisher of shipping costs. That’s the highest since March 2011, figures compiled by Bloomberg show.


Ice in the Baltic, while lower than average, extends farther than a year ago, according to maps on the website of the Finnish Meteorological Institute. Loadings from the Russian port of Primorsk will jump 23 percent to a seven-month high of 1.4 million barrels a day in April, data compiled by Bloomberg show. Eleven Aframaxes were chartered to load in the Baltic last week, compared with four a week earlier, according to data from Clarkson Plc, the world’s largest shipbroker.


“Last week’s high activity on the route has continued this week, and coupled with fewer ships in position, rates have firmed significantly,” Rikard Vabo, an Oslo-based analyst at Fearnley, the investment-banking unit of Norway’s second-largest shipbroker, said in an e-mailed report yesterday.