Product tankers, like their crude counterparts, are revving up
- Baltic Exchange’s LR2 MEG-Japan index up 19% w/w, with LR1 MEG-Japan index rising 26% and MR/handysize basket up 20%
- Crude tanker strength should limit or negate clean cargo cannibalisation from 2026 VLCC and suezmax newbuild deliveries, and push more LR2s toward aframax trades
- Higher demand for aframaxes to serve Venezuelan crude exports to US should indirectly benefit LR2s, while US naphtha flows to Venezuela should be positive for MRs
Cue the ‘rising tide lifts all boats’ cliché. Market strength that began on the crude side is flowing through to product carriers
