LNG tanker rate to stay low - Merrill Lynch
Charter rates for liquefied natural gas (LNG) tankers may stay low because of a surplus in LNG shipping capacity, Merrill Lynch & Co said.
One too many: An investment boom in LNG shipping in the last five years has led to a tanker surplus
Shipyards may deliver 77 vessels or six million deadweight tonnes of capacity in the next few years, according to the report dated April 7. The recent expansion brought the total LNG fleet capacity to 23 million in March, it said. Deadweight tonnes is a measure of a ship's capacity to carry cargo, fuel and water.
'After an investment boom in LNG shipping during the last five years, the number of LNG tankers has increased from about 150 in late 2003 to more than 300 today,' Francisco Blanch, an analyst with Merrill Lynch, said in the report. The increase in carriers this year may exceed the gain in LNG output capacity.
Global supplies of LNG may increase 17.3 million tonnes this year and 41.6 million tonnes in 2010, Merrill said. Put together, the increase represents 34 per cent of LNG demand last year, according to calculations based on data by Facts Global Energy.
Rates to rent LNG tankers fell by 17 per cent last year to about US$46,600 a day for steam-turbine vessels of 138,000 to 150,000 cubic metres in capacity, Poten & Partners, a US energy consultant, said in a report in March.
Daily charter rates in 2008 were in a range of US$40,000 to US$50,000 about 60 per cent of the time, according to Poten.
Charter rates for ships transporting spot cargoes have declined to about US$35,000 to US$40,000 a day currently, Gunaseharan Ganapathy, vice-president of LNG at MISC Bhd, said in March.
Charterers may have paid as much as US$75,000 a day during winter 2007, according to Drewry Maritime Services Ltd.
One too many: An investment boom in LNG shipping in the last five years has led to a tanker surplus
Shipyards may deliver 77 vessels or six million deadweight tonnes of capacity in the next few years, according to the report dated April 7. The recent expansion brought the total LNG fleet capacity to 23 million in March, it said. Deadweight tonnes is a measure of a ship's capacity to carry cargo, fuel and water.
'After an investment boom in LNG shipping during the last five years, the number of LNG tankers has increased from about 150 in late 2003 to more than 300 today,' Francisco Blanch, an analyst with Merrill Lynch, said in the report. The increase in carriers this year may exceed the gain in LNG output capacity.
Global supplies of LNG may increase 17.3 million tonnes this year and 41.6 million tonnes in 2010, Merrill said. Put together, the increase represents 34 per cent of LNG demand last year, according to calculations based on data by Facts Global Energy.
Rates to rent LNG tankers fell by 17 per cent last year to about US$46,600 a day for steam-turbine vessels of 138,000 to 150,000 cubic metres in capacity, Poten & Partners, a US energy consultant, said in a report in March.
Daily charter rates in 2008 were in a range of US$40,000 to US$50,000 about 60 per cent of the time, according to Poten.
Charter rates for ships transporting spot cargoes have declined to about US$35,000 to US$40,000 a day currently, Gunaseharan Ganapathy, vice-president of LNG at MISC Bhd, said in March.
Charterers may have paid as much as US$75,000 a day during winter 2007, according to Drewry Maritime Services Ltd.