Greg Miller of Lloyds List reports that the TCE index for the Middle East-China VLCC route surged 47% on Thursday. He writes:
The very large crude carrier business will take whatever good news it can get in the dog days of summer. As brokerage Fearnleys put it this week: “When you are at the bottom of the hill, the only way is up.”
There was good news on Thursday, with rates suddenly surging well above recent lows.
“VLCC rates have jumped,” said Clarksons Securities analyst Frode Morkedal. “Rates have now recovered back to levels last seen in early June, with owners hoping to maintain momentum as fixing of September cargoes starts.” […]
Harfjeld maintained that it would be a positive for VLCCs. “Atlantic barrels to Asia are truly a VLCC business. It’s impossible for suezmaxes to compete on that.
“I think if Opec at some point decides to release barrels to the market, it would be because there is true evidence of demand growth, so those barrels can come to the market without necessarily rocking the oil price.
“I always think that Opec — and Saudi Arabia in particular — has a clear objective of managing price more than anything. That is precious to them.”
Read more here.
