Okeanis eyes potential for increased rates for big tankers
- An ageing VLCC fleet and low expectations for reintegrating the shadow fleet make it hard to be bearish, says Alafouzos
- Bull market for large tankers is ‘quite likely’
- First-quarter profit falls but second-quarter charter rates are significantly higher
Greece-based owner is optimistic about market for remainder of 2025
OKEANIS Eco Tankers is looking to squeeze greater profits out of the market for big tankers over the remainder of this year after a dip in first-quarter earnings.
The New York- and Oslo-listed, spot market-focused owner of very large crude carriers and suezmaxes posted a profit of $12.6m for the quarter, versus $41.6m for the corresponding period a year ago.
Revenues came in at $80.1m compared with $111.1m in the first quarter of 2024.
The company’s six suezmaxes outdid its eight VLCCs with an average time charter equivalent rate of $39,200 per day compared with $38,000 daily for the VLCCs.
But the market has already risen significantly with Okeanis previewing significantly higher average rates for the second quarter of the year.
It said that 72% of its available VLCC spot days in the current quarter had been booked at an average TCE rate of $46,700 per day, while its suezmaxes were averaging $50,600 per day, based on fixing of 64% of its capacity.
Company executives noted that geopolitical uncertainties had affected demand patterns but they were “quite optimistic” for the balance of 2025.
“It is hard to have a bearish medium-term view when 50% of the fleet of VLCCs will be over 20 years of age in 2028, which is the year you can have a newbuilding if the order is placed today,” said chief executive Aristidis Alafouzos.
The fleet development picture was not only determined by the age of the global fleet but also by the size of the so-called shadow fleet deployed in sanctioned trades, as well as the “the difficulty this segment will have to reintegrate itself [after] any potential peace deal between Ukraine and Russia, or an Iran deal”, he added.
“We expect low utilisation of this segment of the fleet,” Alafouzos said.
“I think we have seen the markets are slowly beginning to simmer and we are going towards the boil,” he said. “We don’t need much more momentum to push us into a stronger bull market and I consider that quite a likely outcome.”
With the entirety of the fleet focused on the spot market, Alafouzos saw potential “for us to capture more upside and we are waiting to do it, hopefully in the second half of this year”.
