Owners of smaller tankers will be the first to feel the effects of the upcoming unwinding of the tanker storage market, analysts said.
Jefferies' Randy Giveans, Christopher Robertson and Chadd Tribo see aframaxes being emptied first, as they are less cost-efficient than bigger asset classes.
"While it is true that floating storage is more expensive than onshore storage, this does not mean that destocking on tankers will occur before or faster than it does onshore due to logistical reasons,"said the analysts for the US investment bank.
