Dearth of ships stalls transatlantic clean trades

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Dearth of ships stalls transatlantic clean trades

London | Reuters | 28-11-00 A dearth of tankers in the Mediterranean has virtually stalled clean products trades from the region, London brokers said yesterday. "I've been looking for ships today and there is literally only two or three available for the cargo," said one London broker. "One of them was indicating W400 plus for 28,000 tonnes from the central Med to the U.S. Atlantic Coast."

An Italian broker said majors were taking a wait-and-see approach. "Agip, ERG, Repsol, Total - they're all temporising," he said. "Because of the production plan of the refineries they have the cargoes ready but they've decided to wait some days until the market has stabilised."

He said he had not yet seen W400 quoted, but cross-Mediterranean trades had increased to W300, or W310 from the Black Sea, and W315 for naphtha. Another broker confirmed that W400 sounded possible for 28-30,000 tonnes transAtlantic. "But whether anybody will pay that is a different matter," he added.

At the start of the month, charterers were paying around W300 to ship 28,000-tonne transatlantic cargoes from the Mediterranean, but by last week rates had shifted up to around W370.

The sheer volume of tankers piling up on the U.S. side of the Atlantic had been expected to cause erosion of Caribbean upcoast freight rates, but the lack of Boston-suitable tonnage has helped keep rates high at around W340. A rush to fix ships before the Thanksgiving holiday last Thursday and Friday worsened the situation.

"Any Boston-suitable tonnage that went across has been utilised," said a London broker, "When you see Bostons starting to come free again, that's when rates will start to drop. Some of them will probably come back across to the Med."

http://www.gulf-news.com/Articles/news.asp?ArticleID=3698

-- Martin Thompson (mthom1927@aol.com), November 28, 2000

Answers

Appreciate all your labors here Martin, but I must admit this one has me stumped. (unable to comprehend)

-- Tommy R... (tommy_r2000@my-deja.com), November 28, 2000.

I have to agree with that. I was hoping someone would explain it to me. What is a clean tanker?

-- Martin Thompson (mthom1927@aol.com), November 28, 2000.

I may be off on this. In the old days a tanker after discharge of its cargo would put to sea to butterworth its tanks. A butterworth is a high pressure rotating water and steam nozzle that is lowered into a tank so that the tank can be cleaned. They have to do this in the open seas so that they can pump the slop overboard. With the pollution laws, I am not sure if this is the procedure used today. Before a tanker can take on new cargo, the tanks must be cleaned or the cargo will be spoiled. The ship may be carrying heavy oil one time and jet fuel the next. Some current old salt might want to respond to this.

-- David Williams (DAVIDWILL@prodigy.net), November 28, 2000.

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