DHT Holdings reported a rise in second-quarter VLCC earnings, though they pulled back in so far in the third quarter as the spot market started the month on a downward note.
The New York-listed owner of large crude tankers said its second-quarter time charter equivalent (TCE) earnings rose to $56,300 per day, including $36,200 per day for vessels on period charters and $64,800 per day for VLCCs operating in the spot market.
That is better than the average TCE rate of $49,100 per day during the first quarter of this year and the average VLCC rate of $24,300 per day earned in the second quarter of 2022.
So far in the third quarter, DHT’s VLCCs are earning $42,400 per day, with 51% of available days booked through spot and time charters.
But 63% of days remain available in the company’s spot fleet, so there is still room for rate fluctuation to impact overall results.
VLCC spot earnings have stumbled significantly since reaching their 2023 peak on 20 March, when the Baltic Exchange’s TCE assessment for benchmark routes in the sector topped $77,600 per day.
On Friday, they had fallen to about $21,700 per day, after closing June at $24,900 per day and mounting a brief spike in the middle of last month that peaked at just over $52,500 per day on 16 June.
However, the Baltic Exchange earnings figures focus on vessels without scrubbers, which typically command a TCE premium because the vessels can utilise cheaper high-sulphur fuel oil.
Svein Moxnes Harfjeld-led DHT, whose senior management is based in Monaco, said on Monday that it has completed its last scrubber installation, which means all of its ships now have the exhaust gas cleaning systems.
Tankers International, a VLCC pool operator, reported the last fixture of a DHT VLCC was on 28 June, when Phillips 66 booked the company’s 300,000-dwt DHT Lion (built 2016) for a trip from the US Gulf Coast to China at the equivalent of $45,100 per day.
The estimate of the round-voyage TCE rate on the fixture, which allows comparison with other deals on the same route, amounts to $42,300 per day.
A day earlier, the shipowner’s 300,000-dwt DHT Puma (built 2016) scored a fixture from Equinor on the same route at $48,600 per day, or a round-voyage rate of $49,900 per day.
Both trips will primarily impact third-quarter figures, since the voyage lasts more than 100 days.
The rate on the route remained in the same range last week, with TMS Tankers’ scrubber-fitted, 300,000-dwt Gustavia S (built 2020) garnering a fixture to Chevron on 3 July at $29,300 per day, but with a longer ballast voyage to pick up the cargo. On a round-voyage basis, the fixture is worth $46,800 per day, according to Tankers International.
