The freight rate on the Cross-Med route dropped $0.40/mt over the day to $10.55, the lowest level since June 25, 2012 when the rate on this route was $10.09/mt, Platts data shows.
Typically, the Handysize fuel oil rates on the Cross-Med route move in tandem with the freight rates on the Black Sea-Med route.
Mirroring weak sentiment seen in the Cross-Med route basis 30,000 mt, the rates on the Black Sea-Med route dropped $1.21/mt over the day to $16.79, the lowest since $16.36/mt on July 17, according to Platts data.
Sources continued to peg the rate on these routes at the same levels on Thursday morning.
"The rates on the Cross-Med and the Black Sea to Med routes have dropped because of supply and demand. Too many vessels, too few cargoes," a Handysize fuel oil tanker source said early in the day.
A trading source said: "The Urals program for export to the Med was very small so there is no need for too many cargoes to move up and down."
"It has been very quiet over the last two weeks, vessels have piled up," a shipowner said, adding, "the vessels have to be fixed now, and so owners are jumping on whatever cargo available in the market."