Market Eye: Clean Tankers Dominate Deliveries as Product Trade Soa

摘要

The number of new clean product tankers coming to the market has surged as shipowners have rushed to cash in on booming global products trade. Data just released by London-based ship broker Simpson, Spence and Young (SSY) show the tanker fleet growing by a total of 79 ships last year, a staggering 65 of them the sort of 60,000 metric ton medium-range (MR) clean product tankers increasingly used to move surplus US oil products to Europe and Africa. The global MR fleet now stands at 1,090 vessels, or 52.5 million deadweight tons, according to SSY, with another 218 clean product tankers due to be delivered this year and next. But, as SSY senior analyst Mark Jenkins points out, "12 months from now, the MR order book looks very modest," even with further dramatic growth in long-haul product shipments expected.