Oil Tanker Owners Junked a Record Number of Ships Before Boom
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Oil tanker owners scrapped a record number of ships this year. Those who did missed out on a sharp rally in rates.
Owners purged a record 100 of the industry’s main crude carriers so far, with most of that happening in the first half of the year, according to data from Clarkson Research Services Ltd., part of the world’s biggest shipbroker. That’s no surprise, as up to September the vessels -- which transport roughly 40 percent of the world’s crude -- were on course for the worst average earnings in at least three decades.