Tanker Trade Still Underwhelming
The tanker market is still rather undewhelming, as demand hasn’t yet rebounded to a level, sufficient to generate positive momentum. Examining North-West Europe crude oil export trade, shipbroker Banchero Costa said in a recent report that “2020 was overall a very negative year for crude oil trade, although of course the tanker market was partially shielded by the increased demand for floating storage. Total loadings in the 12 months of 2020 were down -5.6% year-on-year to 2027 million tonnes, according to vessels tracking data from Refinitiv. Some exporters were more affected than others. Crude shipments from Saudi Arabia went down by -3.2% y-o-y in 2020 to 357.7 mln tonnes. Exports from the rest of the Arabian Gulf went down by -9.3% y-o-y to 494.3 mln tonnes”.