Clean

For the Middle East clean market it has been muted compared to last week. TC1 saw marginal gains over the week to WS280 (a TCE of $63676 per day). A similar run on the LR2 going west, TC20, rose by just over $140k per day ending at $543,333 per day.

TC15 Skikda-Japan on the LR2s has seen a little improvement again, rising week on week to $4,366,667 by the end of the week. There was little gain in overall TCE but a marked improvement from last week. The TC5 55kt Middle East Gulf to Japan saw a jump of WS25.71 points, settling on a firm footing and ending at WS330.71 at weeks end. The MRs saw the worst of it, losing a marginal WS7.5 points, but still sitting high at WS520 with a TCE per day of $58,468.

Handymax routes in both the Mediterranean and the Baltic did opposite shifts with the Mediterranean gaining WS17.82 points to finish just at Ws180.63. This was a relatively healthy gain on the week off the back of decent activity. The Baltic route, meanwhile, saw a drop of WS18.57 finishing at WS347.14.

The MRs on the Continent had another good week with both the Transatlantic and West African routes seeing gains of around WS30 points. The TC19 closed at WS240.71 and TC2 at WS231.94

The US market has been active, despite labour day on the Monday. TC14 and TC18 US export runs rose by WS20 points for Transatlantic to WS183.33 with TCE of $11,602 per day. The run to Brazil finished at WS274.17, a gain of nearly WS35 points.

VLCC

VLCC rates eased this week with the market coming off the recent high. For the 270,000mt Middle East Gulf/China route, the rate fell 4.5 points to the WS70.5 level (a round-trip TCE of $31,700 per day). The rate for 280,000mt Middle East Gulf/USG (via Cape of Good Hope) slipped two points to between WS40-41. In the Atlantic, rates for 260,000mt West Africa/China were three points lower than a week ago at a touch above WS71 ($34,800 per day round-trip TCE). For the 270,000mt US Gulf/China market, rates dipped midweek, then started an upward trajectory on Thursday and were last assessed $37,500 higher week-on-week at $8.5875m (showing a round-trip TCE of $30,700 per day).

Suezmax

Rates for 135,000mt Black Sea/Augusta stumbled this week with tonnage building up in the Mediterranean, which translates into a drop of 10 points since last week at WS181.5 (a round-trip TCE of $73,500 per day). For the 130,000mt Nigeria/UKC trip, rates dipped a meagre 2.5-3 points to WS125 (a round-trip TCE of $33,100 per day). In the Middle East, the rate for 140,000mt Basrah/West Mediterranean continued to hover around the WS65 mark.

Aframax

The Mediterranean market rates took a tumble. The rate for 80,000mt Ceyhan/West Mediterranean fell 32.5 points to WS157 (a round-trip TCE of $30,600 per day). In Northern Europe, similarly the market fell with the rate for 80,000mt Hound Point/UK Continent dropping 25 points to WS152.5 (a daily round-trip TCE of $30,100). The rate for 100,000mt Primorsk/UK Cont route was reduced by 21.5 points to WS181.5 (a round trip TCE of $48,200 per day).

Across the Atlantic, the market has steadied for now with small improvements made. The rate for 70,000mt EC Mexico/US Gulf rose two points to between WS252.5-255 (a round-trip TCE of $53,700 per day) while for the 70,000mt Caribbean/US Gulf trip the rate remained flat at between WS237.5-240 (a round-trip TCE of $45,100). For the Transatlantic route of 70,000mt US Gulf/UK Continent, the rate climbed four points to WS210 ($36,400 per day round-tip TCE).
Source: Baltic Exchange