Nordic American Tankers has seen spot rates more than double so far in the fourth quarter.
The Herbjorn Hansson-led shipowner reported Monday that its spot fleet of 21 suezmax tankers were earning an average of $34,000 per day with roughly 70% of trading days booked.
The same ships earned just $15,900 per day in the third quarter.
"We currently have the strongest tanker market that we have seen in decades," the company said alongside its third quarter earnings.
"The fourth quarter is building a strong momentum for 2020. We expect this to continue. Political frictions often lead to a stronger tanker market."
For the quarter ended 30 September, Nordic American Tankers posted a $13.7m loss, an improvement on the nearly $38m loss a year earlier.
Voyage revenue grew by $1.7m to $32.3m in the third quarter of this year.
Fearnley Securities said EBITDA of $13m was ahead of its $11m expectation.
Fourth quarter bookings stand at 70% at $34,000 per day, which is slightly on the soft side, it added.
"We estimate a PF EBITDA of $49m in Q4 versus current consensus of $58m. Trading well above steel values and an ageing fleet entering IMO 2020 territory, we prefer to look elsewhere for a play on the expected strong tanker market over the coming twelve months."
Evercore analyst Jonathan Chappell said the result, which amounted to a $0.10 loss per share, was "exactly in-line" with his forecast.
He doubled the company's dividend forecast for 2020, from $0.33 per share to $0.66 per share.
But analyst lowered his earnings per share expectation for the fourth quarter of this year to $0.21 from $0.57. He also ratcheted down his dividend forecast per share forecast by a penny to $0.15.
"Like most tanker companies that have already reported 3Q results, although 4Q-to-date rates attained by NAT's fleet are the highest in many years, they will fall short of the benchmark rate projections from last month," Chappell wrote.
