Owners throw 17 VLCCs at one cargo as rates continue slide

Rates remain deep in loss-making levels, although scrubber-fitted ship scores a premium

3 February 2022 21:23 GMT Updated 4 February 2022 15:16 GMT

in Stamford

VLCC owners were so hungry for fixtures that 17 tankers were thrown at a single cargo in the Middle East as rates slumped to painful lows, brokers said on Thursday.

The pile-on came as the Baltic Exchange’s estimate of -$8,330 per day in time charter-equivalent (TCE) earnings represented an “all-time low”, Cleaves Securities chief executive Joakim Hannisdahl said on Twitter.