(+) Tanker Market Monitor

Crude comeback. Over the last few weeks, we have seen Afra’s and Suezmax’s revert to peak performance, to
what we hope is a fixed trajectory for continued growth, all we need is for VLCC’s to get on the wagon as well.

14. May 2023 – RESEARCH

There have been a lot of speculations about the impact of the OPEC production cut on the crude volumes at sea, and now as the market has
made it past the headline stage and is reacting to the actual market, volumes seem to be consistent still. Oil prices have also adjusted
themselves again after reacting quickly to the OPEC news soaring over $80 per barrel a few weeks ago, but as seen now, countries like Russia
have managed to increase their export volumes after supposedly cutting production, not impossible, but strange.

DPP/CRUDE:
The VLCC’s are getting a helping hand from below, as the Suez and Aframax segment’s bullishness has started to wear off on the VLCC
segment with rates now starting to see an impact. Sentiment wise Owners are very well positioned as we head into the next week.
Available Suezmax tonnage has been taken off the shelves leaving few prompt options for charterers in WAF and MED, as rates continued to
increase this past week the only threat that seems to remain for Suezmax Owners is the potential crossover with the VLCC segment where
charterers will try and save some dollars. The outlook for the Aframax market looks very solid as the market keeps progressing, however, we
are experiencing smaller gains w–o–w, but still, improvement is visual, and rates seem robust.

CPP/PRODUCT:
The LR2 segment started the week busy, however, a lot of ships failed, and towards the end of the week, there was still plenty of available
tonnage as the list grew longer and the demand looked weaker. LR1’s managed to close off better than their big brother and a healthy number
of vessels got fixed. The LR1 segment overall seemed well positioned this past week, for guidance AG/UKC earned around mid–3mill.
It was not a great week for the MR segment as the market started to flatten out in Asia, as both the Far East and Singapore saw less activity
w–o–w affecting rates accordingly. The USG is not looking fantastic for MR’s, forcing many Owners to consider the European market instead,
or if possible find their way to AG, where the best earnings seem to be.

TIME CHARTER MARKET:
The period market is still uncertain of which direction to move as we continue to see vessels being fixed above last done pushing rates a bit
but we also see the opposite with vessels going for shorter periods up to 1 year at below last recorded which suggests that owners are not
entirely sure of the actual market rates to the benefit of some charterers who gets discounted vessels – on the contrary, we also see some
owners pushing their luck and getting locked in on lucrative rates as it seems some charterers believe the market will further increase. There
was not much change in the benchmarks this week as the rate spreads continue to be the same with no tilting to either increase or decline.

SECOND–HAND MARKET:
Tankers continue to switch ownership with many vessels still being sold to either private or middle eastern buyers who have been particularly
active the last year with close to 200 tankers being sold to middle eastern buyers since May 2022. Asset prices continue to stay elevated
however there seems to be a slight change in buyers’ and sellers’ ideas now with buyers being a bit cheaper compared to the last couple of
months when it was normal to see vessels being sold above last done. The short–term outlook still looks very strong for asset prices as we still
see a healthy level of vessels being negotiated and buyers continue to be interested in current market prices. The biggest driver for the current
asset prices is the ever–growing shadow fleet and the historic low order book which gives buyers some comfort in buying while the market
continues to be elevated. Discussions seem to be the same, some are cashing out while they are ahead of the game and others believe the
market will continue to increase and test privately each month to compare fetching prices. We see from time to time that new vessels are
being tested privately with owners who usually have kept away from the S&P market for a few years now testing the market for prices to
decide whether it is time.