Ton Mile Trader

Crude
VLCC Ag/East      90     ($54k)     down $29k since last week
SM Wafr/Usac      87.5  ($16k)     down another $6k since last week
Feb AG                 70 
March AG             0      
Feb Wafr bbls       81m  
March Wafr           7m   
Turkish Straits       6n/5s  about same  
Fujairah bunkers   450      down 10 from 1 week ago       

Physical:  Activity has slowed a bit, allowing rates and/or sentiment to decline a touch further.  The cgo count is healthy thus far – though with Feb being a short month – it could be considered in line with where we stood last month.  The difference being, the cgo count ely in Jan was light and had to make up ground in a hurry – thereby providing mojo…and boosting rates.  The Feb count is not light – and therefore may not provide the type of upside burst we saw in Jan.

Frode Morkedal:  Frontline buys and sells a VLCC. Today, Frontline announced that it has agreed to acquire the VLCC "Front Vista" (1998 built) from Ship Finance at a purchase price of USD 58.5m. Frontline has furthermore agreed to sell the vessel and the buyer will settle the purchase price through the payment of installments over a 10 year period. The price the buyer pays to Frontline was not given.

Crude FFAs:   TD3 volume has been good/fair.  March trades down 1.5 points to 70 and is offered over at that level.  Q4 trades down 2 points to 75 and is offered over at that level.  TD5 Feb remains priced in the 87/90 range.

Clean
37kt Cont/ta        180+ ??    ($12k)    wide range….ws 200 reported
38kt Caribs/up     145           ($6k)      unchanged, quiet
55kt Ag/East       145            ($14k)      on downtrend


Physical:  Reports of ws 200 for some Cont/ta activity make it difficult to reconcile where rates might stand, but the higher numbers seem to represent outliers rather a consensus market level.  The Bald Viking of Southport reports that Hovensa in St Croix will be down for scheduled maintenance until at least Feb 23 – thereby limiting Caribs activity…but possibly encouraging a few marginal Cont/ta bbls.  Wafr activity is still reported as “unusually” good.  Thank you Trygve.

FFAs:   Good/fair volume on TC2.  Feb and March both trade within a point of their closes at 180 and 160, though the Feb contract is not showing obvious support.  TC6 Q3 trades flat at 145.  Eastern volumes have been light.  TC4 and TC5 trade flat – both at 135.