31MAY2019 - NEWS - Product Tankers: Will the Market Rally During the Second Half of 2019?

Many question marks still linger regarding the expected rebound of the product tanker freight rate market as we approach the second half of the year, when many ship owners are predicting a rally on the back of the IMO 2020 rules. In its latest weekly report, shipbroker Intermodal said that “reflecting on the first quarter of 2019, the product tanker market was healthy, with average earnings significantly up compared to the first quarter of last year. However, the strong start of the year has been followed by a seasonal softening. Despite the 10% fall of the clean spot MR earnings in January (m-o-m basis), the earnings averaged at mid teen levels. The opening of some arbitrage windows, like the East to West movement of naphtha cargoes, healthy trade patterns in general and a solid growth in US exports were the main driving factors”.

Published by Editor - www.Livebunkers.com at 31-May-2019 03:47:40 [UTC] , contact editor at editor@livebunkers.com