Baltic Aframax rates rise to 2-month high on heavy inquiry; Urals arb to Med
Time：2015-04-02
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The Baltic-UK Continent route, basis 100,000 mt, was assessed Worldscale 25 higher at w105 Tuesday, the highest level since a w110 assessment on January 23.
On the fixture front, Unipec was heard to have placed the NS Creation on subjects at w105 for a Primorsk-UK Continent voyage loading April 14, while Eni reportedly took the Minerva Elpida at the same level for a voyage on the route loading April 12.
Shipping sources said there had been a rush of fixtures as charterers and owners tried to get ships fully fixed prior ahead of Easter. It is now thought the majority of crude cargoes in the Baltic have been fixed up to April 17.
Another reason for the rising rates was that several ships had been fixed to transport Russian Urals crude cargoes from the Baltic to the Med — as opposed to the usual short Baltic-UKC voyages — which meant vessels were being taken off position lists for a longer period of time.
“Tonnage is definitely tighter in the Baltic now and a lot of ships have been fixed to go to the Med. A lot of Baltic charter parties have Med discharge options and more of these options have been exercised this week than normal,” a shipbroker said.
The larger Urals loading program in April out of the Baltic Sea, coupled with a strong refinery maintenance season in Northwest Europe, has seen arbitrage demand from the Med climb over the last two weeks.
Out of three Urals supply tenders out of the Black Sea and Mediterranean seen last week, two are expected to be supplied with volume from the Baltic Sea.
“The Baltic Sea is absolutely attractive,” a crude trader said. “We might see some more oil come down [to the Mediterranean], absolutely…the value is so much better from the North.”