The Baltic Exchange, the London- based publisher of freight rates, said it doesn’t intend to alter how it assesses tanker earnings to reflect the fact vessels are cutting speeds to lower their fuel consumption.Supertankers delivering Middle East cargoes to the U.S. are losing $14,946 a day while returns from shipments to Japan are minus $3,624, implying owners contributing to fuel costs on both voyages, Baltic Exchange data show.
Frode Morkedal, an analyst at Oslo-based investment bank RS Platou Markets AS, estimates the two routes are making owners $7,000 a day and $14,500 respectively. The difference between his assessments and those of the Baltic Exchange is “all down to speed,” he said.
“There are no plans to change it,” Bill Lines, Baltic Exchange spokesman, said by phone today, adding the organization’s formula to calculate returns is transparent, allowing customers to factor in their own assumptions about speeds.
An empty supertanker burns as much as 95 metric tons of fuel a day sailing at 14 knots, Halvor Ellefsen, a broker at Galbraith’s Ltd. in London, wrote in an e-mail today. That drops to between 50 and 60 tons when speeds fall to between 8 and 9 knots, he said. Fuel costs $650.50 a ton in Fujairah, the biggest refueling center for shipping in the Persian Gulf, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
Frode Morkedal, an analyst at Oslo-based investment bank RS Platou Markets AS, estimates the two routes are making owners $7,000 a day and $14,500 respectively. The difference between his assessments and those of the Baltic Exchange is “all down to speed,” he said.
“There are no plans to change it,” Bill Lines, Baltic Exchange spokesman, said by phone today, adding the organization’s formula to calculate returns is transparent, allowing customers to factor in their own assumptions about speeds.
An empty supertanker burns as much as 95 metric tons of fuel a day sailing at 14 knots, Halvor Ellefsen, a broker at Galbraith’s Ltd. in London, wrote in an e-mail today. That drops to between 50 and 60 tons when speeds fall to between 8 and 9 knots, he said. Fuel costs $650.50 a ton in Fujairah, the biggest refueling center for shipping in the Persian Gulf, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.