Fairplay: Taking Stock of Sandy

“Hurricane Sandy lobbed a grenade on to virtually every facet of the US east coast maritime industry at once on 29 October and the impact on shipping is likely to be felt for many months. . . .  One of the more jarring effects of Sandy was the sudden loss of retail gasoline, which caused 100-car queues at filling stations, directly attributable to the inability of tankers to dock at New York gasoline terminals. Ships that waited it out in New York or diverted to other east coast ports drastically reduced the availability of tonnage that typically ballasts to the US Gulf after northeast discharge and is then fixed on a backhaul voyage to Europe. That caused time charter equivalent rates for TC14 (US Gulf to UK or Continent) to surge from about $5,000/day to almost $20,000/day (on a 50% laden basis) during the week of 29 October, according to US tanker consultancy Poten & Partners. Not surprisingly, Poten noted, the rates for TC3 (Caribbean to US Atlantic Coast) spiked to more than $26,000/day due to tightening tonnage in the region.”