Tanker bookings for shipping gasoline to the U.S. from northwest Europe until Aug. 31 may fall for the second week in a row as demand declines, while the number of available tankers stays unchanged, a survey showed, Bloomberg reports. Charterers will hire 16 medium-range tankers to transport 5.03 million barrels of gasoline across the Atlantic Ocean through to Aug. 31, according to the median in a Bloomberg survey of five shipbrokers, one ship owner and a trader today. The 359,000 barrels a day rate is 59 percent lower than the 878,000 barrels imported by the U.S. last year, the Energy Department said.
U.S. gasoline demand tends to peak during its so-called driving season from the end of May to the first week of September.
“As we pass the peak of the summer driving season in August, given that we are facing softer year-on-year retail sales and comfortable stocks in the U.S., you are therefore likely to see declining demand for European gasoline,” Harry Tchilinguirian, the head of commodity-markets strategy at BNP Paribas SA in London, said by e-mail today.
Seven vessels were hired to load the auto fuel and nine more bookings will probably come, data from the survey showed. That would be a 16 percent drop from last week, when nine bookings were made and 10 more expected. Twenty-five tankers were yet to be assigned cargoes and available for hire, unchanged from the start of August, the survey showed.
Daily rental income for tankers carrying gasoline across the Atlantic has declined 25 percent since the end of the second quarter to $6,332, according to data from the Baltic Exchange in London. Returns as calculated by the exchange vary with fuel costs.
Ship Fuel Rises
The price of ship fuel, or bunkers, rose 0.7 percent to $644.75 a metric ton today, data compiled by Bloomberg from 25 ports worldwide showed. That’s up 27 percent this year.
The survey is based on so-called single-voyage, or spot, charters and excludes loadings under longer-term contracts. It assumes shipments to the U.S. East Coast from northwest Europe. Each tanker would normally haul about 37,000 tons of cargo, or 315,000 barrels.
Charter rates on the route rose 0.6 percent to 147.5 Worldscale points, according to the exchange. The points are a percentage of a nominal rate, or flat rate, for more than 320,000 specific routes. Flat rates for every voyage, quoted in U.S. dollars a ton, are revised annually by the Worldscale Association in London to reflect changing fuel costs, port tariffs and exchange rates.
U.S. gasoline demand tends to peak during its so-called driving season from the end of May to the first week of September.
“As we pass the peak of the summer driving season in August, given that we are facing softer year-on-year retail sales and comfortable stocks in the U.S., you are therefore likely to see declining demand for European gasoline,” Harry Tchilinguirian, the head of commodity-markets strategy at BNP Paribas SA in London, said by e-mail today.
Seven vessels were hired to load the auto fuel and nine more bookings will probably come, data from the survey showed. That would be a 16 percent drop from last week, when nine bookings were made and 10 more expected. Twenty-five tankers were yet to be assigned cargoes and available for hire, unchanged from the start of August, the survey showed.
Daily rental income for tankers carrying gasoline across the Atlantic has declined 25 percent since the end of the second quarter to $6,332, according to data from the Baltic Exchange in London. Returns as calculated by the exchange vary with fuel costs.
Ship Fuel Rises
The price of ship fuel, or bunkers, rose 0.7 percent to $644.75 a metric ton today, data compiled by Bloomberg from 25 ports worldwide showed. That’s up 27 percent this year.
The survey is based on so-called single-voyage, or spot, charters and excludes loadings under longer-term contracts. It assumes shipments to the U.S. East Coast from northwest Europe. Each tanker would normally haul about 37,000 tons of cargo, or 315,000 barrels.
Charter rates on the route rose 0.6 percent to 147.5 Worldscale points, according to the exchange. The points are a percentage of a nominal rate, or flat rate, for more than 320,000 specific routes. Flat rates for every voyage, quoted in U.S. dollars a ton, are revised annually by the Worldscale Association in London to reflect changing fuel costs, port tariffs and exchange rates.