Tradewinds: Asian Dirty Influence Grows

“Asia’s growing influence in the crude tanker markets is reflected in Poten’s annual review of world-wide tanker fixtures for 2010. Fixture increases in VLCC and Suezmax markets are generally reflective of a growing demand in China,” the US shipbroker said. This in contrast to declining fixture volumes in the aframax and panamax sectors which primarily serve the Atlantic Basin economies. Asian growth trend is also evident in the individual charterer breakdown for the 2010 calendar year, Poten said. Chinese charter Unipec displaced Clearlake in the top five charterer’s category, jumping four places from 2009’s ranking of ninth. Unipec’s fixture activity last year increased by 146 fixtures, or 58%, to 399 fixtures versus its total 2009 activity. Valero, Socar and Reliance no longer find themselves outside of the top twenty charterers as they were in 2009.”