Hellenic Shipping News: Poten and Partners: Slippery Orders

18 July 2016: “The situation of the shipyards in the world and in particular the struggles of the Korean shipbuilding industry has received a fair amount of attention in the shipping press, as well as in more general news outlets. In the tanker market, which, until recently, was one of the few profitable shipping segments, attention has also shifting back to the supply side of the equation. Markets have weakened across the board and, although there is undoubtedly an element of summer slowdown at work, it appears that owners are generally more pessimistic now than they were in the beginning of the year. Tanker owners clearly have no influence on overall oil demand growth or changes in crude oil and petroleum product trade patterns. However, at least as an industry, if not as individual companies, owners do have an impact on the supply side of the equation. From that perspective, let’s examine the current orderbook for crude oil tankers and see if we can make any reasonable assumptions for fleet growth in 2016.”