West Africa to Northwest Europe and WAF-Mediterranean Suezmax freight rates hit a low for the year so far on the back of low activity and production issues, shipping and trading sources said Tuesday.

The WAF to NWE Suezmax freight rate was assessed at $10.68/mt Monday reaching the lowest since December 10's $10.58/mt, Platts data shows.

In the same vein, the WAF-Mediterranean Suezmax freight rate was at $11.19/mt Monday, the lowest since December 11's $11.08/mt, Platts data shows.

Sources said that vessel fixing activity has been much slower in the last few weeks because of shorter Angolan and Nigerian June loading programs.

Nigerian crude oil loadings in June were at 2,049,083 b/d making it the shortest monthly program since November. Sources said because of this there were fewer cargoes needing ships which contributed to a lack of fixing activity.

The Angolan June loading schedule totaled 48.97 million barrels, down by 15% from May, making it the smallest Angolan monthly program since February.
"It's a matter of demand and supply, the activity in the Suezmax market from WAF has been very limited in the last two to three working days.

At some stage, I was only counting two cargoes on the market from WAF [Monday]," a shipping source said on Tuesday morning.

Meanwhile, shipping sources said the Astro Polaris was placed on subjects to Eni loading from Bonga to the Mediterranean with options to discharge in NWE at Worldscale 51.25 on June 9-10. A source at Eni confirmed the details.

The freight rate quoted for the vessel was equivalent to $10.68/mt for WAF-NWE, and $11.19/mt for WAF-Med, Platts data shows.

While, WAF to the US Atlantic Coast, and WAF to the US Gulf Coast Suezmax freight rates remained steady over the past two weeks at $12.75/mt and $14.23/mt respectively, sources said that the freight rates may drop further in line with the WAF-NWE and WAF-Med Suezmax on Tuesday.

Source: Platts