Chemical Tanker Shipping overview Transcript
ICIS publishes the only independent reports on the chemical tanker shipping market, publishing three weekly reports on the shipment of chemicals loading from Europe, the US and Asia.
All three reports focus on small chemical tankers generally up to 50,000 tonnes, and include freight rate assessments as well as commentary on the spot market.
Prices are always changing, for example, before the global economy went into recession in 2008 there was a great boom in chemical tanker shipping. However, since then demand for chemical tankers has almost evaporated.
Fewer products are now being shipped and there is now less need to move products from one region to another.
New tankers ordered prior to the global economic downturn continue to enter the market, adding to the already well-supplied tonnage.
Persistently high crude oil prices continue to maintain an upward pressure on the cost of bunker fuel, leaving ship owners with spiralling operating costs.
Many believe the group of emerging economies known as the BRIC countries- Brazil, Russia, India and China- may well be areas that go from strength to strength, and could be where firmer freight rates are achieved in the future.