Minerva daily rate hits $19,500Thursday 07 October 2010

by Michelle Wiese Bockmann

Fixes two aframaxes on a one-year time charter at a rate of $19,500 per day

MINERVA Marine has fixed two aframaxes on a one-year time charter at a rate of $19,500 per day, writes Michelle Wiese Bockmann.

The 2006-built, 104,500 dwt Minerva Clara was fixed to US-based tanker company OSG, while the charterer for the 2004-built, 105,320 dwt Minerva Nike has not been reported.

The rate is slightly higher than the $19,000 daily rate that listed tanker company Genmar agreed with oil trader Trafigura two weeks ago.

But Cardiff Marine reportedly agreed a rate of $15,000 daily for their 2009-built aframax Myrtos, for 30-90 days, according to broker reports. The tanker will be used by the charterer, Clearlake, for storage.

The 2010-built, 112,043 dwt Ashley Lady was chartered to store bunkers by oil trader Vitol at $17,000 per day.

Singapore-based Navig8 also chartered the 2004-built, 45,989 dwt Japanese-owned product tanker Stavenger Eagle at $13,000 per day.

Iron ore pushes up Baltic Index

THE Baltic Dry Index rose to the highest in almost three weeks on strengthening iron ore demand, reports Bloomberg.

The index climbed 0.9% to 2,662 points, according to the Baltic Exchange, the highest since September 17 — and the gain was led by a 1.5 % increase in capesize vessels.

Lower fourth-quarter contract prices for iron ore are encouraging buyers to book cargoes, Citigroup Inc. said in a report today. Contract prices fell 11% from the third quarter, according to Plamen Natzkoff, a dry bulk trading strategist at Citigroup in London.

“There is a pick-up in trade happening right now with the start of the fourth quarter and lower prices, and this is supporting capesize rates,” Mr Natzkoff said.

Rates to hire capesize vessels climbed to $39,876 a day, extending this week’s gain to 22 %. On Wednesday, rates increased 6.3% and the day before by 9.5%.

“I would be cautious if I wanted to go long betting on even higher freight rates,” Mr Natzkoff said. The BDI will average 2,463 this year, 2,349 next year and 2,235 in 2012, Citigroup forecasts.

Charter rates for smaller panamaxes advanced 0.6 percent to $19,080 a day, according to the Baltic Exchange. Charter rates for supramax-class ships advanced 0.6% to $19,708 a day and handysizes fell 0.4% to $15,157 a day, according to the exchange.

Singapore distillate store rises

SINGAPORE’S stockpiles of light distillates including gasoline and naphtha rose to a record, data from the Ministry of Trade and Industry showed, reports Bloomberg.

Onshore inventories of light distillates such as naphtha, reformate and gasoline gained 8.1 % to 12.3m barrels in the seven days through to today from a week earlier, International Enterprise Singapore said today.

Supplies of middle distillates, including gasoil and kerosene, fell 1.3% to 12.9m barrels. Stockpiles of residues, which includes fuel oil, low-sulphur waxy residue and excludes bitumen, declined 1.2% to 21.9m barrels.