(+) Siste nytt fra tankermarkedet

Clean comeback: We have seen a product tanker comeback as charterers are forced to play ball and pay premiums
for MR’s in the UKC/USG region again, hopefully, this trend will soon affect the whole market.

28. May 2023 – RESEARCH

After a few turbulent weeks for the product tanker segment, we are as expected starting to see clear signs of life coming from the West where the market has firmed up significantly again. We touched upon the impressive confidence in the tanker market last week, which as we explained, continues to be confirmed when the market bounces back from short setbacks, it has contributed a lot to the current second–hand market levels as well. At this point most Owners in the tanker segment are starting to look ahead with wonder as to how they can renew a fleet in the current landscape as both newbuildings and second–hand prices are expensive, market participants like Hafnia have said that the
tanker fleet will have to grow older than before, pushing for larger investment into fleet maintenance.

DPP/CRUDE:
The VLCC market stagnated a bit this past week as rates went a bit negative for the first time in a few weeks with AG a couple of points lower w–o–w, overall activity looked a bit slow, but sentiment does not feel particularly negative from the Owner’s side. Suezmax’s saw some softening for the first time in close to a month as well as Charterers have been playing the patience game, which has helped them slow down rates. The Aframax segment continues to rally as the segment is getting firm enough for charterers to start sourcing Suezmax’s instead, if possible. In North Europe and MED, the Afra’s are pushing forward and the week ended with a positive outlook.

CPP/PRODUCT:
The LR2’s have gotten a lift out of the gutters that they were failing into, as AG/UKC voyages are again fixing over USD 4mill and demand looks to have been stabilized with bigger product volumes flowing again. The LR1 segment on the other hand was sort of unnoticed, it did not drop significantly in the past, but now that big brother is moving up LR1’s are staying at the same levels, still fixing around low USD 3mill for AG/UKC.
The MR market is seeing green once again after a few bloody weeks that we prefer to forget. The reactivation of the MR started in UKC and USG where rates started to surge during the last week, however, in Asia the market is yet to pick up speed, but as we have seen before, if demand is strong enough in some regions, the ballasters will level out the market in other areas.

TIME CHARTER MARKET:
The time charter market reacted slightly this week with the weaker spot market but is establishing a firm ground which is evidenced by repeat rates and extensions across the board. The rates are still elevated greatly if we zoom out and look at the bigger picture with some segments still being up y–o–y with fx MR2 rates being at $14,750 pd at the same time last year but are now at around $27,000 pd (an increase of 82.3% y–o–y). The continued chartering activity at these levels suggests that the market has not at all reached a peak and this could only be the beginning of a momentum with actual supply change having an effect during 2026.