Anticipation for the Saudi stem confirmations was also high but thus far, this has also been a non-event, Fearnleys reported.
Activity remained very sluggish this week and charterers held back. The few fresh cargoes in the MEG were well received and charterers managed to shave rates. Owners were waiting for activity to pick up but rates remained under pressure.
WAfrica/East did spike briefly but volumes also slowed and rates rebounded. Earnings for MEG/ WAfrica to East remained in the mid-$40,000’s per day.
The recent Suezmax spike in West Africa ended suddenly and rates corrected downwards with charterers regaining the upper hand in the market.
With a handful of cargoes not materialising last week, the tonnage list grew leaving plenty of ships open for early May business.
Looking forward, the activity should pick up when charterers come in to work their May cargoes, but at time of writing (Wednesday) there is ample tonnage available to cover for the current business being worked.
North Sea/Baltic business was tight for end/early laycan’s ex Baltic, which resulted in a significant jump in rates. By the middle of this week, it looked as though rates could firm further, as there are still April cargoes to cover with few vessels open.
In the Med/Black Sea regions, owners thought the market was too flat, while charterers believed that the small spike seen this week was unnecessary. However, the reality was that the small jump from WS82.5 to WS87.5 ex Med will be a short lived.
Loading programmes are more or less finished for the rest of the month and next month is looking thin, Fearnleys concluded.
Elsewhere, ExxonMobil is reportedly shipping a crude cargo produced from its deepwater Julia field in the Gulf of Mexico to its refinery in Rotterdam.
This marks the first export of offshore oil to leave a US port since the ban was lifted last December. Until now, all the other shipments have been of light onshore oil.
The oil major is only shipping 18,000 barrels of oil on a Panamax tanker, the ‘PGC Marina’, according to a bill of lading published at Bloomberg terminals and Thomson Reuters vessel tracking data.
The vessel departed from Gramercy, Louisiana, earlier this month and is expected to arrive in Rotterdam this week, according to the data.
Initial testing on the Julia field, a joint venture between Norway’s Statoil and ExxonMobil, located roughly 200 miles south of New Orleans, Louisiana, began in March.
Navios Maritime Acquisition is to sell two IMO II chemical tankers to an unaffiliated third party for $74.6 mill in total, the company said.
The buyer of the 2013-built MR sisters - ‘Navios Constellation’ and ‘Navios Universe’- was believed to be Navig8 Chemical Tankers.
Navios said it expects to book a gain of $11.7 mill on the deal.It also said that it acquired the two vessels in 2013 for a total of $67.2 mill and that they were forecast to have generated total EBITDA of $22.3 mill.
The deal is due to be finalised in the third quarter of this year, following completion of the vessels’ chartering commitments. Navios said it planned to use the net proceeds for debt repayment and for general working capital purposes.
Elsewhere, the sale of the two 2009-2010-built Aframaxes ‘SN Claudia’ and ‘SN Olivia’, which was believed to be still on subjects last week, was said to have gone through for around $65 mill in total.
Another Aframax- the 2009-built ‘Diamond Bliss’ - was reported sold to undisclosed interests for $32.5 mill.
Analysts believe that today owners are seeking modern secondhand tonnage rather than commit to newbuildings, which is helping to keep the S&P market on a firm footing.
Leaving the fleet was the 1991-built MR ‘Kriton’ reported sold to India, option Pakistan, for $310 per ldt; the 1992-built MR ‘Sriracha Leader’ said to have been sold to unknown breakers for $280 per ldt on the basis of ‘as is’ Thailand and the 1991-built smaller MR ‘Argosy’ believed sold to Pakistan recyclers for $305 per ldt.
In the charter market, the 2007-built MR ‘Star Eagle’ was fixed sold to Tune Chemical Tankers for $17,250 per day for a six month period.