Positive sentiment may have filtered into the sector for offshore support vessels since the middle of last year, but the sober reality is that OSV owners still have a mountain to climb.

Clarksons wrote in a recent review that there are some fledgling signs in the OSV supply and demand picture that there may rebalancing under way.

“However, the severity of the post-2014 market imbalance is such that it is still uncertain when a brighter day will dawn for OSVs,” the shipbroker's research division said.