October was a stronger month across most of the tanker types. Crude oil jumped 6.5%, cancelling out September’s loss. The crude oil price was neutral during the reference month but since then has been on the decline all through November into December.
There was a noticeable bounce back in LNG trade during October. Most of that was into Europe which is most likely stock building. Interesting too was a large uptick in LPG trade to Asia too. LPG trade rose nearly 13% month on month in October and nearly 15% ahead compared to a year ago.
Chemical tankers are in a period of stronger demand with the data showing they 17% ahead of the previous October. Methonol, Paraxylene/Xylene and Sulphuric Acid are particularly doing well.