The buoyant transatlantic clean tanker market held on to its gains this week, following a rate hike above the W300 mark two weeks ago, ship brokers said on Wednesday. However, the rates are expected to soften in the near term amid limited chartering inquiries.
Rates for 37,000-tonne capacity tankers for transatlantic voyages were pegged at W315, unchanged from the previous week and up from W295 two weeks ago. The flat rates were in line with the stable weekly gasoline imports into the United States.
Imports for the week ended July 14 was pegged at 1.05 million barrels per day (bpd), compared with 1.1 million bpd in the previous week. Some gasoline traders in the US expected July imports to be lower than June at about 1 million bpd. "We are expecting the rates to soften due to a lack of cargoes out there," a broker in the US Northeast said.
The rates would be forced to drop as the big players such as Citgo and Hess had already fixed their ships for the entire month of July, he said. NS Stream was booked by Trafigura at W315 to load in the Baltic on July 28, and Freja Asia was fixed by CSSA at W315 to load on July 28.