Two Greek shipowners have locked suezmax tankers into short period contracts with trader Trafigura, brokers said.
Adam Polemis company New Shipping and Stamatis Molaris-backed Alma Maritime have inked deals that will see the tankers employed through the early days of IMO 2020.
Trafigura has fixed the 157,600-dwt New Vision (built 2018) for eight months plus an unspecified number of options at $27,000 per day, brokers said.
The tanker is the newest of the six suezmaxes Polemis has on the water alongside 10 VLCCs and five aframaxes.
The Alma Maritime ship heading for Trafigura is the 158,500-dwt Suez Rajan (built 2011), brokers said.
It has reportedly been fixed for eight months at $24,000 per day, with an optional period also included.
Tanker market sources told TradeWinds that both the age gap between the ships and the differing delivery locations explain the difference in rates.
Alma has four suezmax sisterships from Hyundai Heavy Industries in its fleet alongside an equal number of capesize bulkers.
Rates for modern eco suezmaxes sat at $14,057 per day in the spot market on Tuesday evening, below the $16,152 per day average in the year to date, according to Howe Robinson Partners.
Affinity (Shipping) placed the one-year time charter rate for a suezmax at $24,000 per day in a report this morning.
Trafigura booked a first-half profit of nearly $42m in 2019 on revenue of $86.3bn.
The trader has previously stated it had encountered some difficulty in chartering tankers given the upcoming IMO 2020 legislation.
It has its own tanker fleet of 35 new crude and product tankers after a major newbuilding drive and also has VLGCs on order.
