Looking Ahead

Brokers are reporting that the CPP market has been depressed for a while and will probably remain so for the foreseeable future. The recent positive upturn in the chemical and biodiesel market has everybody wondering whether this is merely a blip, or an early sign of sustained growth? Recent economic data suggests that Britain’s economy is in a worse state than originally thought, and this is making us all feel doubtful of a significant recovery within the shipping sector any time soon.

As we watch with bated breath, there does however seem to be some activity – although the movements seem more to be a decrease in the availability of open spot tonnage, rather than an increase in demand for product supplies in and around the UK/Continental coastal waters.

Across the market, as spot positions are decreasing, this is giving the impression that more cargoes are on offer, although this is not actually the case. But what we could see is added pressure on the charterers and a potential increase in freight rates, rather than the recent bun fights that have appeared to have taken place between owners over the last year.

There are a number of reasons for the decline in spot positions: Some vessel owners are becoming more contract-orientated, in response to increasing demand in their markets; Some older vessels have left the market completely; Turkey has scaled back production of new chemical tankers in recent times – their previous speculative approach having successfully elevated the country into one of the biggest producers of tonnage in the 1,000 to 10,000 dwt range in the world.

Here at Sea Tankers Ltd, our aim is to respond to these market trends – along with internal physical demand from our sister company, Sea Bunkering Ltd – by adding additional tonnage to the current time chartered fleet, when required by demand.

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