Shipping Watch Myth-busters: Speed and earnings

摘要

In our June 23rd weekly we compared the difference in speed for ~2,700 vessels travelling on February 15th and May 15th 2011 to see if slow steaming had been implemented Data from RS Platou Economic Research support our thesis that the combination of weak earnings and high bunker prices in fact has led to slow steaming, absorbing some of the over-capacity and lowering bunker expenses which consequently improve earnings for ship owners Equally weighted, the average speed declined 2 3 from February to May and data from the same survey on August 15th show that since May speed has been reduced by another 2 4, bringing the 6 month speed reduction to almost 5.