Bloomberg: Charter Rates Plummet with Least Baltic Ice Since 1720

“Oil tankers may plow through the smallest amount of Baltic Sea ice in almost three centuries this year, speeding up deliveries and driving charter rates to the lowest since at least 1997. . . Demand for the vessels could also strengthen outside the Baltic region. Shipments from Libya, which halted during the uprising that ousted Muammar Qaddafi last year, reached 800,000 barrels a day in December, compared with 555,000 a month earlier, according to the International Energy Agency. Aframaxes accounted for 74 percent of the 54 tankers booked to load Libyan crude since September, data from New York-based shipbroker Poten & Partners show. The vessels may also find more cargoes in Asia. China, the world’s second-biggest economy after the U.S., will consume 4.2 percent more oil this year, almost four times the anticipated gain globally, according to the IEA, an adviser to 28 industrialized nations. China’s economy will expand 8.5 percent, compared with 2.3 percent in the U.S., the median of as many as 72 economist estimates compiled by Bloomberg show.”