World Maritime News: Poten & Partners: French Strike’s Impact on Tanker Market Limited, but Growing

1 June 2016: “At the moment, the impact of national strike in France, where members of the trade union CGT have organized strikes at the country’s refineries and blocked oil terminals and fuel depots, on the tanker market is fairly restricted, albeit growing, according to shipbrokers Poten&Partners. ” One of the options that remains feasible is supplying France from the Netherlands and Belgium by barging fuel via the river Rhine to Strasbourg in the east of France, the brokerage said. ““As long as the conflict continues, the impact on the tanker market will be limited with a slightly negative bias. At the moment, 75% of France’s 1.4 million b/d of refining capacity is either offline or in the process of stopping,” Poten&Partners adds. “In the short-term, Poten&Partners believes that European countries in particular may decide to draw on (ample) inventories. ““Even if the labor conflict ends this weekend, it will take one to two weeks for the refiners to start back up, so it is likely that we will see increased product imports with Atlantic Basin product carriers (MR’s mainly) as the main beneficiaries in the short term,” the brokerage firm concludes.”