Freight earnings for MR and handysize product tankers on the Baltic-UK Continent route have been firm in recent weeks, with ice-class restrictions taking effect.

The buoyed rates on the trade contrast to weakness elsewhere for this segment of the clean tanker trade.

According to the Baltic Exchange, the time-charter-equivalent earnings of a tanker carrying 30,000 tonnes of clean petroleum products on the route has remained above $19,000 per day for more than two weeks, hitting a peak of $21,781 per day on 29 January.