VLCC Market Trends

摘要

1.VLCC spot earnings slipped even further in February, reaching a monthly average of $3,324/day. This represents a 66% m-o-m decline, and the lowest monthly average since May 2018 ($3,185/day). Earnings continued to trend downwards in early March, reaching an average of just $826/day in the first week of the month, the lowest level for at least 30 years. 2.The share of the VLCC fleet engaged in floating storage averaged 9.7% in dwt terms in February, a slight easing from the January average of 10.0%. However, this compares to a level of around 8% of the fleet in early 2020, indicating that floating storage is yet to fully unwind from the historically elevated levels seen in early May 2020 (13.0%). 3.VLCC dwt demand is expected to remain under pressure this year, with only a partial rebound of 2.9% expected, following a sharp decline of 5.3% in 2020. Growth is expected to be primarily limited by the maintenance of deep OPEC+ cuts throughout Q1 2021 and into Q2.