Siste Fearnleys weekly
After a quiet-ish end to last week the VLCC market kicked off in earnest on Monday when the May MEG stems finally came out, later than normal. Rates quickly established a platform at W157.5, courtesy of Unipec taking four units in one swoop, and then ramped up from there. Yesterday culminated at W195 for a MEG/China run, with historically high daily earnings helped further by plummeting bunker prices. However, some of the momentum seems to have gone up in smoke at the writing moment, with Suezmaxes underbidding their larger sisters by a considerable amount. That said, however, not all charterers have the luxury of splitting their cargo - and delays plus period/storage fixing has left the position list wanting. As such the downside should be capped if owners can hold their nerve, although history has shown that can be a big if.