Santa Came Early This Year

31 Dec 2015: As 2015 draws to a close and the Worldscale Organisation published the new 2016 Flat Rates, we go through the annual exercise of updating Flat Rates in our systems. This highlighted once again the significant changes in bunker prices that occurred over the last 2 years. The Worldscale Organisation calculates Flat Rates based on average bunker prices over the period from October 1 of the prior year to September 30. The 2015 Flat Rates were based on Heavy Fuel Oil (HFO) prices of $614.81/metric tonne (MT) while the 2016 Flat Rates use prices of $367.55/MT, a reduction of 40%. Currently, HFO bunker prices are significantly lower again, at around $150/MT. The last time bunker prices were at such levels was in 2004. Download here