Prospects of the crude oil tanker market 2013 - 2017

Abstract

The objective of this research is to present an overview of the crude oil tanker market with the intention of identifying its prospect in the next five years. Besides conventional research on trends and statistical data, this paper also incorporates industry sentiments through interviews and surveys to determine the prospects of the crude oil tanker market. The findings from research reveal that demand growth will be largely driven by China and India. However, the fleet scenario does not project an optimistic freight outlook for the next two years at least. The limiting factor to the market outlook seems to be the ship owners themselves, as the current oversupply situation was caused by the influx of new buildings during the pre-2008 boom. The time required for the market and freight rates to recover depends on how long it would take for supply to balance demand. Based on these analyses, recommendations were then made for ship owners to consider for the years ahead.