VLCC rate index jumps 20% on sentiment lift

VLCC rates saw strong gains on Monday largely thanks to continued bullish market sentiment and a strong crude lifting schedule from West Africa.

The Baltic Exchange’s VLCC-TCE index jumped nearly 20% from Friday to reach $52,944 per day. The gains came from the index’s two main routes, Middle East-to-US and Middle East-to-Japan, gains.

Middle East-to-US rate saw the biggest jump rising 25% to $33,498 per day while the Middle East-to-Japan route was up 18% to $72,390 per day.