CHEMICALS

摘要

Almost four months after the winter storm brought US chemical production to a halt, there were a few fixtures of cargoes such as styrene to Europe and India, and glycols from the USG into the Mediterranean. These few shipments were symbolic as they represented what shipowners hope will be a return to normal trading conditions. Understandably, rates from the USG were weak on every trade lane during June, owing to the imbalance between tonnage supply and demand. Hardest hit were the routes to Asia as there was precious little cargo quoted. Similarly, rates to India came under a great deal of pressure, with only ethanol, styrene and a few tentative phenol enquiries heard.