Stena Bulk has reportedly added two scrubber-fitted suezmax newbuildings to its fleet as period charter rates gradually recover.
Brokers said the Swedish tanker operator chartered the 156,500-dwt Crude Levante and Crude Zephyrus from Metrostar Management for two years.
The duo, which will be delivered from New Times Shipbuilding later this year, is fixed at $25,000 per day plus profit sharing.
TradeWinds reported the Theodore Angelopoulos-led company ordered the vessels from New Times for about $56.5m apiece in 2019.
The suezmaxes are expected to enter the pool established by Stena and Sonangol, Angola’s national oil company.
Last September, Stena chartered four vessels at $25,000 per day and deployed them to the Stena Sonangol Suezmax Pool.
They were the 157,000-dwt Almi Horizon (built 2011), Almi Globe (built 2012), and the 159,000-dwt Atina and Istanbul (both built 2015).
A total of 23 ships with an average age of 9.5 years are operating in the pool, according to its website.
Among other fixtures, Vitol was reported to have chartered the 300,000-dwt Elandra Elbrus (built 2020) to Equinor for a year at $33,500 per day.
The scrubber-fitted ship is owned by Singapore-based Elandra Tankers, a joint venture between Vitol and Standard Chartered.
Also, brokers said Reliance Industries secured the 150,000-dwt Chios I (built 2017) from Dynacom Tankers Management for six months at $15,500 per day, and the deal can be extended by another six months.
Signal Maritime reportedly fixed the 109,200-dwt Gilfa (built 2005) from Union Maritime for 12 months at $17,000 per day.
TradeWinds has approached the shipowners and charterers for comments.
Recent fixtures suggested that charterers began to be willing to fix long-term deals, even though the overall liquidity is lacking amid a mixed market outlook, according to Braemar ACM Shipbroking.
“In any event, these are taken to be positive traction for the markets as a whole and hopefully the start of more to come as some normality resumes,” the brokerage said in note.
Many analysts have forecast that tanker demand will gradually recover in line with oil consumption throughout the year, but the resurgence of Covid-19 infections in India has dampened market sentiment.
Oil demand in the world’s third-largest consumer nation will amount to 4.76m barrels per day (bpd) in the second quarter and 4.7m bpd in the third, down from 5.05m bpd between January and March, the US Energy Information Administration has forecast.
“The Middle East Gulf market is heavily oversupplied,” said a broker, adding that fewer liftings of India-bound cargoes have been “a contributing factor”.
