Fuel-Tanker Bookings From Europe to U.S. Double as Price Gap Lures Cargoes

Bookings of tankers to ship European gasoline to the U.S. doubled in June from a month ago as higher gasoline prices in the U.S. attracted cargoes.

U.S. gasoline’s premium over European averaged 14.4 cents a gallon in June, up 8.2 percent from May, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. At least 30 vessels were booked in June to send gasoline to the U.S. Atlantic coast from Europe, up from 15 a month ago, ship-bookings information compiled by Clarkson Research Services Ltd. showed.

The ships carried at least 1.14 million metric tons, or about 9.69 million barrels, of the automotive fuel in June, up from 549,000 metric tons in May, according to Clarkson Research, a unit of the world’s biggest shipbroker.

The rate to ship gasoline from the European continent to the U.S. Atlantic coast rose to Worldscale 180.25 yesterday, or about $12,935 a day after fuel costs, the highest level since March 2, according to London-based Baltic Exchange.

Gasoline futures on the New York Mercantile Exchange traded at a premium of 21.58 cents a gallon on June 25 over the spot price of European gasoline, the highest level this year, according to Bloomberg data. The premium averaged 13.34 cents in May.

The data from Clarkson Research were drawn from single- voyage bookings and no long-term charters were included.

To contact the reporter on this story: Moming Zhou in New York at Mzhou29@bloomberg.net

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