Anthony Gurnee has added his voice to the chorus of tanker executives anticipating an upturn in the market following a seasonally weak summer period.

Gurnee, chief executive of Ardmore Shipping, explained winter would bring a warmer market and was positive for next year as the company reported its second quarter accounts today.

New York-listed Ardmore logged a profit of $5.5m in the three months to the end of June, down from $7.9m in the same stretch of 2015.

Diluted earnings per share came in at $0.20 in a quarter which saw a dividend of $0.11 declared.

Noah Parquette of JP Morgan said the results were impressive, with operating earnings per share of $0.18 well clear of the $0.13 per share consensus. This was due to stronger than charted revenue and lower costs.

Gurnee said in the results statement: “The spot market for MRs showed strength in the early part of the quarter, before softening in late May and June as a result of reduced refinery output and thus lower cargo volumes and trading activity.

“We anticipate a recovery of refinery output late in the third quarter, supporting MR tanker charter rates going into the historically stronger winter market.”

Despite the current softness, Gurnee says demand will grow by between 4% and 6%, while growth in the MR fleet will slip to 5% by the end of this year.

“As a result of these factors, we anticipate that fleet growth net of scrapping will decline to only 2-3% in 2017 and will be meaningfully outstripped by demand growth for the foreseeable future,” he said.

Since the end of the quarter Ardmore has snapped up the six-strong MR fleet of John Fredriksen’s Frontline.

Gurnee said the move came at “an ideal point in the evolution of the product tanker trade” and the extra ships would begin to help drive earnings from the third quarter this year.

Gurnee’s positive read on the market, is in line with that of Marco Fiori, the chief executive of d’Amico International Shipping, who told TradeWinds last week rates would strengthen in the winter and 2017 would be better than the present year.