Rates to ship oil products within Asia have achieved a six-year high, with time-charter equivalent earnings averaging USD26,378.
Shipments out of South Korea have been leading the gains.
The Baltic Exchange’s BITR-Asia index assessed the South Korea-Singapore rate at USD15,855/day on 14 July, up USD1,183 from 13 July.
Over the same period, the South Korea-North Pacific rate rose from USD1,154 to USD25,149 on 14 July.
Pricing agency Oil Price Information Service Supply (OPIS) said supplies of jet fuel remained ample in the region, outstripping demand in the Asia jet fuel market.
OPIS said, “The supply glut saw little hope of easing as output from Southeast Asia over January-May was on an uptrend amid likely favourable refining margins for middle distillates.
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“Similarly, supply from North Asia was also slated to increase as refiners were said to likely be either keeping export volumes high or increasing the export volumes because of unused export quotas from the second quarter of 2015.”
Italian broker Banchero Costa attributed the profitable refining margins to the drop in oil prices.
Banchero Costa said, “The earnings for medium-range tankers on the South Korea to Singapore route averaged USD12,097/day in the first six months of 2015, compared with USD4,797/day during the same period in 2014. The fundamentals on the demand side remain good as low oil prices and a structural change in global refining capacity have encouraged trade.”
Reported fixtures show an unidentified charterer fixed Handy tanker Atlantic Lily to ship oil products from Incheon to Long Beach, but rates were not revealed.
This post was sourced from IHS Maritime 360: View the original article here.
