US outages spur clean tanker ballasts to Europe

Low diesel and gasoline export demand in the US Gulf coast, exacerbated by this week's weather-induced disruptions at Texas ports and refineries, has led to an uptick in empty tankers leaving the region for the rising and active European market.

Since 6 February, 19 medium range (MR) tankers have begun ballasting from the Americas to Europe, according to Vortexa.

Clean tanker rates in Europe have risen by more than a quarter this week because of plentiful chartering activity in the region, which has been supported by increased demand for Americas-bound shipments. The spike in demand for Americas-bound shipments, particularly for gasoline, has been spurred by the refinery disruptions in the US, where the cold weather and related power issues have affected about 4.2mn b/d of refinery output, according to the US Department of Energy (DOE).

Despite the tightened tonnage in the Americas, rates have continued to fall this week because the market, which had already been consistently inactive over the past two months, has been further hamstrung by the weather-related disruptions in the US Gulf coast.

This week the US Gulf coast-Europe MR tanker rate fell by 7pc to $10.30/metric tonne, and the US Gulf coast-Chile MR tanker rate has fallen by 2pc to $1mn lump sum, both two-month lows.

By Michael Connolly