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THE cost
of shipping Middle East crude to Asia, the world’s
busiest route for supertankers, may rise for a 12th day
because of falling vessel supply.
There
are 15 double-hulled very large crude carriers, or VLCCs,
available for hire within the next 30 days, according to
a recent report from Paris-based Barry Rogliano Salles.
A month ago, there were 54.
It’s
primed “for further increase,” said Halvor Ellefsen, a
tanker broker at SeaLeague AS. The supply of ships in
May looks “very tight indeed” based on the amount of
demand for vessels hired to load this month.
Total
SA, Europe’s third-largest oil company, booked a vessel
operated by Tankers International Llc. with a discharge
option in Asia that cost 165 Worldscale points,
according to a report Friday from Athens-based Optima
Shipbrokers.
That’s
4.3 percent above the London-based Baltic Exchange’s
benchmark assessment of 158.13 points for voyages to
Asia.
Still,
demand for ships from oil companies has “taken a
breather” over the past two days, Ellefsen said. “The
market does not generally take well to longer periods of
inactivity.”
Worldscale points are a percentage of a nominal rate, or
flat rate, for more than 320,000 specific routes. Flat
rates for every voyage, quoted in US dollars a ton, are
revised annually by the Worldscale Association in London
to reflect changing fuel costs, port tariffs and
exchange rates.
Each
flat-rate assessment gives owners and oil companies a
starting point for negotiating hire rates without having
to calculate the value of each deal from scratch.
At
158.13 Worldscale points, owners of double-hulled VLCCs
can earn about $124,694 a day on a 39-day roundtrip from
Saudi Arabia to South Korea, based on a formula by R.S.
Platou, an Oslo-based shipbroker, and Bloomberg
marine-fuel prices.
Frontline Ltd., the world’s biggest VLCC operator, said
on February 15 it needs $31,400 a day to break even on
each of its supertankers.
Bookings
for VLCCs sailing from the
Middle East to
Asia account for 47 percent of global demand for the carriers,
according to New York-based McQuilling Brokerage
Partners Llp.
Shipments to the
US
and Caribbean, the second-biggest market, account for 14
percent of demand for supertankers. (Bloomberg) |
