Drewry’s latest Tanker Insight saw the Tanker Earnings Index jump by 69% as activity surged, lifting freight rates across all vessel segments. Chartering activity in the dirty tanker market remained buoyant as 77.9 million tonnes of crude were fixed for shipment, comfortably up on the 65.9 million tonnes fixed in February. Higher crude import demand from South East Asia and the US (ahead of the planned US refinery maintenances) supported the increase in rates for VLCCs and Suezmaxes.

A recovery in US demand for West African crude in March underpinned a rate increase for Suezmaxes operating on the this route, with rates increasing to five points to WS57.

Similarly, rates from the Black Sea to Northwest Europe firmed up by 5% over the month to WS67, helped by an increase in arbitrage returns to ship cargoes from the Black Sea.

Increased demand from Asian refiners points towards more long-haul crude trade from West Africa to the Far East in the near future. However, this is likely to offer a boost to tonne-mile demand for VLCCs rather than Suezmaxes.

Given the subdued demand expected in the longer run, recent increases in rates will provide some solace to Suezmax owners.

The Drewry Tanker Earnings Index takes 11 different trade routes covering both the crude and product sectors of the tanker market. Each route is weighted within its market to produce a monthly time charter earnings index. January 2002 has been designated the starting point at which all the indices = 100.

Source: Drewry Maritime Research