December 13th, 2019 
Sam Chambers Tankers 1 comments
Aframax tanker rates in Europe have soared to record six-digit territory this week, surpassing the spikes seen in October.
Latest deals done on for the North Sea to the Continent put aframaxes on $111,100 per day, leaping by more than $40,000 since Monday.
“Right now, the only direction is upwards as we expect owners to continue to put further pressure on those freight levels as we are moving into the festive season,” brokers Fearnley’s noted in its latest weekly report.
Cleaves Securities’ shipping analyst Joakim Hannisdahl told Splash today: “I hear of strong demand and tight tonne list in the North Sea and Baltics, with delays in the Turkish straits further strengthening owners’ hands.”
Alphatanker’s latest weekly report noted how aframaxes have leapt thanks to being the “workhorse” of the US – European trade which has soared this year. According to Alphatanker data, US flows to Europe have exceeded 900,000 barrels per day this year compared with 550,000 barrels per day in 2018.
The freight rate spike has also translated into aframaxes skyrocketing in value with one nearly 18-year-old tanker changing hands earlier this week for $14.2m.
The boss of the world’s newest aframax owner, Ben Ognibene from Stamford-headquartered Concord Maritime, told Splash today: “We like the fundamentals in the aframax markets – global cargo volume growth, rapidly slowing fleet growth, dearth of newbuilds, volatility in rates, and baseline earnings.”
Concord Maritime, launched in April 2018 as a tanker commercial management firm, has just moved into shipowning with the acquisition of 2007-built aframax tanker Aegean Blue from Greece’s Arcadia Shipmanagement.
from Greece’s Arcadia Shipmanagement.Aframax rates now we’ll above October spike levels… We are in fantasy land.$TNK #IMO2020 #OOTT pic.twitter.com/ghbkawZKlx
— calvinfroedge (@calvinfroedge) December 12, 2019
