Synopsis
Every five years a vessel has to undergo a special survey that costs millions of dollars, money that’s hard to find when vessels are making a loss.
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The scrap value of a VLCC currently stands at $18.95 million, according to the most recent Clarkson Research data. That’s the highest since March 2018 and could offer a further incentive to scrap.
Covid-19 is destroying the market for supertankers that deliver about a fifth of the world’s crude oil. The result is likely to be booming trade on the beaches of Bangladesh, India and Pakistan, where obsolete ships go to get blow-torched and sold for scrap.