DHT Holdings reported a dip in second-quarter profit as it felt China’s downward pull on VLCC rates.

The New York-listed tanker owner reported a profit of $44.5m, down from $57.1m a year earlier and a slip from $47.1m in the first quarter of the year.

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The VLCC specialist’s earnings per share of $0.27 were roughly in line with analyst expectations. The average Wall Street forecast was $0.28 before the announcement.

Revenue fell to $150m from $152m in the second quarter of 2023.

At the heart of the decline was a spot market that came in below predictions for the period.

“Chinese economic growth and oil demand has recently been slower than expected,” Svein Moxnes Harfjeld-led DHT said in the earnings report.

“We understand Asian refiners to have built inventories of refined products in response to weak refining margins whilst drawing on crude inventories.”

DHT said it achieved time charter equivalent earnings of $52,700 per day for its VLCCs in the spot market, down from $64,800 per day in the same period of 2023.

Its time-chartered vessels earned $36,400 per day, a slight uptick from a year earlier.

The company said the refinery fundamentals should head in a better direction.

“It should be logical to expect this to be reversed in due course resulting in increased demand for crude oil feedstock and our services,” it said.

“Further, we take encouragement from the growth prospects of the Chinese petrochemical industry as their predominant feedstock is crude oil-based.”

The company said 75% of available VLCC spot days have been booked for the third quarter at $42,100 per day, lower than the $44,700 per day earned in the spot market in the same period last year.

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