14OCT2019 - NEWS - VLCC rates hit $300,000 a day in robust yet volatile market

Freight rates of VLCCs have surged to a high of $300,000 a day in a market boosted by a quick succession of unrelated incidents, as the different events have reinforced each other to lead to the spike.

Today, rates of VLCCs are anywhere between $200,000-300,000 a day, according to analyst Poten & Partners.

“Last week, we were referencing the winter of 2015 as that was the last time VLCC rates reached above $100,000 a day. To find a reference to today’s skyrocketing rates, we must go back 15 years, almost to the beginning of the tanker super cycle. In the winter of 2004, rates also reached $250,000 a day, but this came after VLCCs already earned more than $100,000 per day several times earlier in the year,” the analyst said in a report last Friday.