Summary:
Again, the robustness of tanker demand continues to surprise considering the circumstances. As the oil price settled at 42/43-dollar price, demand fell 5% in July which is 6% down compared to a year ago. The rising price has ended the advance buying and floating storage options affecting Q2.
Oil product demand is spikey, but surprisingly is 1% ahead compared of July last year. Interestingly, physical demand has fallen 13%, however it fell only 7% in terms of tonne mile, showing how cargo is traveling further.
Fuel oil dropped 5% in terms of volume but overall, the trade grew by 4% in terms of tonne mile in Q2. This demonstrates quite clearly the metric you use is really important and tonne miles should not be underestimated. China had been doing much of the buying.
LNG has also bounced up in July by 5% and is only down 3% compared to last year. 27 million tonnes were shipped showing the relative strength of the trade considering the covid effect.