All eyes turn to timing of tanker rate resurrection
Crude tankers are seeing “classic signs of recovery.” “Newbuilding orders are extremely low. Orders this year are the lowest in 25 years.” On the product-tanker side of the equation, “refineries are shutting down so products are being shipping from further away, which is very interesting from a ton-mile point of view.”
Those quotes are from a shipping conference in New York in 2011, a full decade ago.
A few quotes circa-2017: “New capacity additions for global refineries are set to double, a positive for global volumes and product tanker demand.” Crude tankers should see “an asset and rate recovery in 2018 and beyond.” Given pending regulations, “the number of tankers sent for demolition will increase.”
Shipping stocks are suddenly revving up across the board
Tanker spot rates are horrible. Rates for gas carriers have fallen off a cliff. Only container shipping is booming. But you wouldn’t know that by looking at ocean shipping stocks. Across every shipping sector, stocks are up double digits in February.
“Shipping stocks have been on a tear for the past several weeks,” said Clarksons Platou Securities analyst Omar Nokta during a Capital Link-sponsored virtual event on Tuesday.
“We’ve gotten used to seeing pockets [of activity] for tankers or pockets for dry bulk. But we haven’t seen this type of interest across the board in a while,” said Nokta.
Full steam ahead for shipping stocks seatrade-maritime.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from seatrade-maritime.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Matson (NYSE: MATX) and
(Chart: Koyfin)
The ‘retail horde theory
Why has the broader shipping-stock space revved up in February when rates for most non-container segments have not?
One theory particularly in the wake of the
GameStop (NYSE: GME) stock spike in late January is that the retail horde has alighted on shipping stocks. It happened before, in April 2020, when traders on retail platform Robinhood ran up the stock of
Nordic American Tankers (NYSE: NAT). If it s happening again, this month s price gains could be fleeting.
Evidence for this theory: Micro-cap shipping stocks favored by day traders are performing exceptionally well. Robinhood restricted trading in various stocks amid the GameStop frenzy. One of them was
Operator
Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for standing by, and welcome to the DHT Holdings fourth-quarter results presentation with Laila Halvorsen, CFO; Trygve Munthe, Svein Harfjeld, co-CEO. [Operator instructions] I would like to advise you that this conference is being recorded today on Tuesday, the 9th of February 2021. I would now like to hand the conference over to your first speaker today, Laila Halvorsen. Please go ahead.
Laila Halvorsen
Chief Executive Officer
Thank you. Good morning and good afternoon, everyone. Welcome, and thank you for joining DHT Holdings fourth-quarter 2020 earnings call. I m joined by DHT s co-CEOs, Svein Moxnes Harfjeld and Trygve Munthe; and Wilhelm Flinder, head of investor relations.