The Dark Days Before Christmas

09 December 2016:  Clouds have been gathering above the tanker market for some time now.  The orderbook for delivery in 2017, particularly for crude oil tankers, is high and the prospects for oil demand growth have been muted.  The recently announced OPEC production cuts came on top of that.  In previous years, China has been a reliable source of oil demand growth and hence a strong supporter of the tanker market.  According to our data, that trend continued this year with double digit growth in Chinese crude oil imports in 2016 to date.  However, there is significant uncertainly about the prospects for Chinese demand growth in 2017. Please fill out the form to read full article