Shrinking number of cargoes

A.P. Moeller-Maersk A/S, Denmark"s biggest crude-tanker operator, said rental rates slumped to a record low because of a shrinking number of cargoes.

A.P. Moeller-Maersk A/S, Denmark"s biggest crude-tanker operator, said rental rates slumped to a record low because of a shrinking number of cargoes. The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, accounting for about 40 percent of global crude output, is pumping 13 percent less oil than a year ago, Bloomberg data show. The carrying capacity of the world"s fleet of tankers expanded 8 percent over the same period and ship-fuel prices more than doubled this year, cutting owners" margins. ?There is less oil to transport and therefore tanker rates are at a record low,? Chief Executive Officer Nils Smedegaard Andersen said in a phone interview today. ?Oil prices are fine, but production is limited by OPEC quotas.?

Oil fell a record 54 percent last year as the global economy entered its worst recession since World War II. The fuel rebounded 66 percent this year as supply shrank and investors speculated demand will strengthen as economies improve.

Rental returns on supertankers, after fuel costs, dropped to minus $1,642 a day in June on the benchmark route from the Middle East to Japan, Baltic Exchange data show. Owners may have been willing to contribute to costs in order to reposition ships in profitable regions or cover some of their running costs.

Supertanker Returns Supertankers are now making $6,374 a day. Owners need $12,270 a day to pay crew, insurance, repairs, engine lubricants and other running costs, according to data from London-based Drewry Shipping Consultants Ltd. Frontline Ltd., the biggest supertanker company, said May 28 it needs $32,400 a day once finance costs are taken into account.

?We see a sustained malaise for the rest of the year,? Jeff McGee, who leads tanker research at Simpson, Spence & Young Ltd., the world"s second-largest shipbroker, said by phone today. ?The supply and demand fundamentals are just too weak.? The Baltic Dirty Tanker Index, an overall measure of costs for hiring crude tankers, averaged 527 points in the second quarter, its lowest average since at least the fourth quarter of 2001, according to data from the London-based Baltic Exchange. Maersk"s tankers unit posted a first-half net loss of $115 million today, from a profit of $194 million a year earlier. Maersk, the world"s biggest operator of container ships, posted a 3.67 billion-kroner ($700 million) first-half loss, compared with net income of 11.6 billion kroner last year.

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