Clearlake Shipping, the ship chartering arm of commodity trader Gunvor, is being linked to more long-term charters of modern tanker tonnage.
The company, one of the largest tanker charterers in the world, is reported by brokers to have fixed two suezmax newbuildings on order in China from Greece’s Polembros Shipping.
The Spiros Polemis-controlled shipowner is said to have fixed the two unnamed ships to Clearlake for periods of five years each upon delivery at a rate of $36,000 per day.
The 156,000-dwt, scrubber-fitted ships under construction at New Times Shipbuilding are scheduled to be delivered in 2025.
Last week, Clearlake extended its charters of two MR tankers belonging to US-listed shipowner Top Ships.
As reported by TradeWinds, the Evangelos Pistiolis-backed owner said its 50,000-dwt Eco Yosemite Park and Eco Joshua Park (both built 2020) had entered into seven-year agreements with their current charterer.
The fuel-efficient eco ships will earn $19,500 per day from 1 August, an increase of 12% from the current rate, Top Ships added.
The ships are currently on charter to Clearlake, according to the latest filings with the US Securities & Exchange Commission by Top Ships.
There is a trend in the tanker market for longer time charters, as participants seek greater clarity on freight exposure over the medium term, according to a report by Ifchor Galbraiths earlier this year.
Every segment of the tanker fleet from VLCC to handy is said to have experienced multi-year increases in the average length of time charter.
Ifchor Galbraiths described the suezmax fleet as a “textbook example” of this trend: the average time charter duration in the first quarter of 2024 was nearly three years, compared with just under 1.5 years in 2019.
This trend is mirrored across the wider tanker fleet, where for the first time since 2009, average time charter duration has increased past the two-year mark, to an average of 2.03 years.
Ifchor Galbraiths said the increasing durations have seen a cumulative total of more than 920 years of time charters across 2023 and the first part of 2024, with oil majors and traders taking a “significant chunk of that business”.
Clearlake Shipping, which completed more than 2,250 voyages in 2021, according to its website, runs its chartering and freight trading activities out of offices in Singapore, Geneva and Houston.
