Mideast VLCC oversupply worsens to 28%
The surplus of supertankers competing for cargoes of Middle East oil expanded, hurting owners' efforts to pull the market out of its longest run of losses for at least two years.
There are 28 per cent more very large crude carriers, or VLCCs, for hire over the next 30 days than there are cargoes, according to the median estimate of seven owners and shipbrokers surveyed by Bloomberg News on Tuesday. The excess was 20 per cent a week ago.
Tuesday was the 25th straight session that rental income from the industry's benchmark Saudi Arabia-to-Japan route has been below what owners need to pay crew, insurance and repairs, according to data from the London-based Baltic Exchange and Drewry Shipping Consultants.
'Oversupply remains the fundamental issue,' Cantor Fitzgerald analysts Natasha Boyden and Noah Parquette wrote in a report. 'To see so little signs of life at this point in the year is worrisome.'
Of the seven respondents, five said supply expanded compared with their previous estimates and two said it stayed the same. The surplus has averaged 21 per cent this quarter, compared with 11 per cent in the first half.
Daily rental income from the benchmark voyage fell 5 per cent to US$8,017 on Tuesday, according to the exchange. It's been below the US$11,601 that Drewry estimates VLCCs need to pay crew, insurance and repairs as of Aug 24. That's the longest period since the exchange began publishing daily rental income assessments for the route in July 2008.
Charter rates as measured in industry standard Worldscale points fell 0.4 per cent to 47.03 points, according to the exchange. Worldscale points are a percentage of a nominal rate, or flat rate, for more than 320,000 specific routes.
The Baltic Dirty Tanker Index, a wider measure of crude oil transportation costs, was unchanged at 690 points, according to the exchange.
There are 28 per cent more very large crude carriers, or VLCCs, for hire over the next 30 days than there are cargoes, according to the median estimate of seven owners and shipbrokers surveyed by Bloomberg News on Tuesday. The excess was 20 per cent a week ago.
Tuesday was the 25th straight session that rental income from the industry's benchmark Saudi Arabia-to-Japan route has been below what owners need to pay crew, insurance and repairs, according to data from the London-based Baltic Exchange and Drewry Shipping Consultants.
'Oversupply remains the fundamental issue,' Cantor Fitzgerald analysts Natasha Boyden and Noah Parquette wrote in a report. 'To see so little signs of life at this point in the year is worrisome.'
Of the seven respondents, five said supply expanded compared with their previous estimates and two said it stayed the same. The surplus has averaged 21 per cent this quarter, compared with 11 per cent in the first half.
Daily rental income from the benchmark voyage fell 5 per cent to US$8,017 on Tuesday, according to the exchange. It's been below the US$11,601 that Drewry estimates VLCCs need to pay crew, insurance and repairs as of Aug 24. That's the longest period since the exchange began publishing daily rental income assessments for the route in July 2008.
Charter rates as measured in industry standard Worldscale points fell 0.4 per cent to 47.03 points, according to the exchange. Worldscale points are a percentage of a nominal rate, or flat rate, for more than 320,000 specific routes.
The Baltic Dirty Tanker Index, a wider measure of crude oil transportation costs, was unchanged at 690 points, according to the exchange.
