Clean
The Atlantic front and backhaul has been active with TC2 Cont-USAC 37,000mt CPP rising over WS24 in the week to close at WS404.17 (a TCE Round trip rate of $50,006). The TC14 fell by around half the rise to finish at WS263.33 (a minor fall in TCE Earnings to $28,296 per day round trip). Elsewhere in the Atlantic sentiment has been muted with falls across TC18 and TC21 routes.
In Europe both TC6 and TC9 saw marginal gains, with a jump at the beginning of last week on TC6. There was a high of WS435 eventually settling at WS434.69 (a TCE earning per day round trip of $81,564). TC9 has remained pretty flat throughout the week with few WS points gained to finish at WS600 (a TCE daily earning of $81,358 round trip).
The Middle East clean market has been flat. TC1 lost some points to WS293.13 (a TCE of $68,580 per day). With a similar run on the LR2 going west, TC20 faced a quarter of a million drop to $6,185,714 (a TCE of $79,503 per day).
TC15 Skikda-Japan on the LR2s has been pretty positive with a rise of $358,333 to close at $5,275,000 for the week (giving a TCE per day round trip earning of $35,538).
VLCC
The VLCC market continued its downward spiral this week with the volume of fixture activity much reduced from previous weeks. 270,000mt Middle East Gulf to China is now valued 22 points lower than a week ago at WS86 (a daily TCE round trip of $50,600), while the 280,000mt Middle East Gulf to US Gulf (via the Cape/Cape routing) trip is being assessed 10 points down at a little over WS60.
In the Atlantic region, the rate for 260,000mt from West Africa to China similarly dropped 22 points to a fraction above WS87 (a round trip TCE of $53,100 per day) and 270,000mt US Gulf/China has fallen by $1.875 million to $12,612,500 ($67,400 per day round trip TCE).
Suezmax
The Suezmax market also fell back down this week with rates for 135,000mt CPC/Augusta dropping 39 points to just below WS280 (a TCE of $143,200 per day). For the 130,000mt voyage Nigeria to Rotterdam trip, rates tumbled 25 points to WS186.5 (about $71,900 per day round trip TCE). The 140,000mt Basrah/Lavera market eased 13.75 points – albeit barely breaking the WS100 barrier.
Aframax
The European Aframax market became another victim of reduced fixture activity and a tonnage build-up, resulting in a lower sentiment. The 80,000mt Hound Point/Wilhelmshaven route slipped a meagre eight points to WS315 (a round-trip daily TCE of about $143,000). In the Mediterranean, which suffered heavy rate reductions, the 80,000mt Ceyhan/Lavera market dropped 71 points to WS357, although still showed a healthy daily round-trip TCE of $128,300.
The Stateside Aframax market saw significant rate corrections as a result of the four day Thanksgiving holiday at the end of last week. This allowed charterers room to take stock of their situation while the position list re-populates. For the 70,000mt East Coast Mexico/US Gulf route, rates plummeted 189 points from recent heady highs to WS490 ($147,400 per day round-trip TCE). Similarly, the 70,000mt Covenas/US Gulf voyage had 165 points taken out of the market assessment to WS458 (a daily round-trip TCE of about $125,100). For the longer-haul 70,000mt US Gulf/Rotterdam voyage, rates were reduced by 65 points to WS328.5 ($78,600 per day round-trip TCE).
Source: Hellenic Shipping News
