Last week, Fotis Giannakoulis of Morgan Stanley pointed out that daily levels for tonnage involved in the carriage of cargoes from West Africa to Europe and China hit $51,000.
The forecaster noted this average, which followed a 43% surge, represents a high that has not been seen since the start of 2015.
“The spike in suezmax rates came as West African chartering activity jumped 52% week-on-week to 35 [million barrels] after two relatively slow weeks,” he added.
“With Saudi output continuing to be strong at 9.9mbpd, a large portion of the suezmax fleet has ballasted over to the Middle East resulting in a shortage of vessels in West Africa as a number of cargoes suddenly surfaced.
“Half of this volume will move East and the other half primarily to Europe and only two suezmaxes scheduled to sail to the US which continues to reduces its seaborne imports.”
Today, Omar Nokta of Clarkson Capital Markets told clients that suezmaxes trading in this corner of the spot market were commanding $59,000 per day on average.
Industry observers note this is well above daily earnings achieved by VLCCs, which are currently seeing day rates of around $49,100.
Charles Rupinski, an analyst at Global Hunter Securities, says suezmaxes trading in the period market are fetching approximately $33,000 per day on average when fixed for a year.
Giannakoulis pointed out that strength in the suezmax segment bodes well for Nordic American Tankers, Tsakos Energy Navigation, Teekay Tankers and other operators with US listings.
