U.S. Diesel Cargoes to Europe Seen Declining in Broker Survey

Shipments of diesel to Europe from the U.S. Gulf Coast are poised to decline over the next two weeks, a Bloomberg News survey showed.
Traders will charter nine Medium Range tankers for loading to May 29, the average estimates of four shipbrokers specializing in the trade showed. That’s two fewer ships than in last week’s corresponding survey. Each vessel would normally carry about 38,000 metric tons of the fuel.
The survey is based on the Houston-to-Amsterdam route, a benchmark for the trade that takes about 17 days at 12.5 knots, according to the sea-distances.com website. Costs to haul refined products to Europe climbed 28 percent this month to 96.79 industry-standard Worldscale points, according to the Baltic Exchange in London.
Six of the projected bookings have been arranged and the rest are anticipated, the latest survey showed. Twenty-nine tankers will be seeking cargoes, four more than last week, according to the shipbrokers.
The table below details numbers of ships booked, likely to be hired and available for charter for the two weeks from the stated dates.
*T May 15 May 8 Change Ships Hired 6 7 -14% Ships Probably Hired 3 4 -25% Total Hired 9 11 -18% Available Ships, U.S.-Europe 29 25 +16%
Source: Bloomberg