Low rates are deterring VLCC owners from completing fixtures for long-haul US Gulf to Asia routes in expectation of better times ahead, according to shipbroker Braemar.
Asian refineries are looking to the region to replace increasingly expensive Middle Eastern crude but owners do not want their tankers operating for weeks on routes offering low returns, it said.
The last successful fixture reported between the US Gulf and China by pool operator Tankers International was on 15 August when the 299,847-dwt Caspar (built 2022), operated by TMS Tankers, was chartered by PetroChina at $38,406 a day for 118 days, according to its...
