Tanker market benefits from oil rout
Time：2014-12-30
Browse：130
According to aggregated data from the Baltic Exchange, daily earnings reached $97,489 on the Middle East to Japan route, the highest levels since 2008. Only six months ago, tanker rates were so low ship owners could not cover their daily operating expenses of up to $20,000.
“Somebody call the bucket brigade, because the tanker market is officially on fire,” said Noah Parquette, an analyst at Canaccord Genuity, the brokerage company.
The rally in tanker rates is a welcome boost for an industry that has been ravaged in recent years.
With oil prices dropping to below $60 a barrel for the first time since May 2009 — down almost 50 per cent in the last six months alone — China has moved to build up its strategic reserves.
Between January and November this year, China imported 6m barrels a day on average, up 500,000 barrels on the same period last year, according to Argus Media, the energy data company.
Relentless production from US shale oilfields has also had a transformational impact on the tanker market. US seaborne crude imports are down 43 per cent since 2006 and have fallen 9 per cent this year alone, according to Clarkson Research Services, the broking firm.
Exports from the Middle East and west Africa have instead made their way to China and India, routes that are longer and more lucrative.
The industry could receive a further boost in the coming months as the oil surplus grows. When there is a so-called “contango structure” — when prices for future delivery exceed spot prices — traders seek to buy oil for storage on tankers hoping to profit from future sales.
Ship owners and analysts are optimistic that rates will remain above $40,000 for several years because of the low number of new ships on order.