COVID-19 – Ocean Tanker Pooling of Capacity to Smooth Impact of Demand Variability

Ocean tanker owners are hoping that putting their vessels into pool arrangements will smooth out the peaks and valleys that come with serving volatile energy markets. Maersk Tankers A/S is the latest big operator to follow that new course, the WSJ Logistics Report’s Costas Paris writes, offloading dozens of product tankers and shifting into the potentially more stable business of managing tanker fleets. Tanker earnings have been on a roller coaster over the past year, with daily freight rates gyrating between $10,000 and $150,000. That turbulence increase as falling oil prices pushed more energy companies to store crude and oil products on tankers, sending ocean rates skyrocketing even as ship owners warned pricing could soon crash. Tanker rivals Norden and Diamond S Shipping this month struck an agreement to pool their substantial product tanker fleets. Maersk Tankers’ move suggests tanker operators now are consolidating behind pools.