VLCC rates surge as shipowners 'firmly in control'

Maran Tankers vessel scores WorldScale 170 rate as benchmark route reaches highest level since October

VLCC spot rates surged to the highest level since an October spike, as tanker owners held onto the driver's seat in a hot market.

A Maran Tankers Management ship fetched a rate of WorldScale 170 on a trip from the Middle East Gulf to Thailand, which marked a staggering surge from WS 105 on the same route earlier in the day.

The journey for the 317,000-dwt Maran Antares (built 2012), which utilises low sulphur fuel oil, equates to a round-voyage time-charter equivalent (TCE) rate of $190,000 per day, according to Tankers International. Actual earnings, given the ship's starting point at at Sikka, India, amounted to whopping $300,000.

Thai oil company PTT booked the vessel, but the deal is understood to be on subjects, according to Tankers International.

The frothy rate came as the Baltic Exchange data showed TCE earnings on the benchmark Middle East-to-China route more than doubled in one day to $166,000 per day, the highest level in five months.

The surge came after TradeWinds reported earlier today that Saudi shipowner Bahri led a raid on the large tanker market, forging charters for at least 18 VLCCs.

"The control of the market is firmly in the hands of the owners," said Howe Robinson, a tanker broker.

"After they drove the market so firmly upwards yesterday, charterers have not stopped to take a breath and, in the hope of comparative advantage, they continued to take ships at the end of March with some reaching out into April stems."

The rises are expected to continue on the near term.

"This flood of activity does not like abating right away and is now supporting substantial rate increases in the western hemisphere as owners demand firmer rates to compensate them for longer voyages," Howe Robinson said.

The excitement filtered down into other tanker segments, although the rates gains were smaller.

The Baltic Exchange cited average suezmax TCE rates at $45,751 per day Wednesday, which marked a one-day gain of 54.7%.

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