VLCC rates are sliding on the main routes amid limited trading this week, with many shipowners and charterers taking a wait-and-see approach before major oil players meet later this week.

Tanker International data showed Mangalore Refinery and Petrochemicals Tuesday afternoon provisionally booked the 316,400-dwt Desh Vaibhav (built 2005) at Worldscale 174.4 for a voyage charter from the Middle East Gulf to the western coast of India, with a lifting date of 16 April.