Trading firm Trafigura says global stockpiles of diesel and other refined products will remain high into 2017.
The outlook suggests refineries will continue to see poor margins and there will be limited trading opportunities for clean petroleum products in the coming year, prolonging a trend that shipowners have blamed for lower products tanker charter rates.
Ardmore Shipping chief executive Anthony Gurnee noted on the company's last earnings conference call that the charter market is "experiencing softness in particular as a consequence of lower oil trading activity and global inventory de-stocking in tandem with reduced refinery throughput."
