Supertankers, which account for about a fifth of all oil supplies in the world, are threatened with being sent for scrap due to a decrease in demand for their services. Bloomberg reports this with reference to the heads of the company, which deals with such transportation.
During the 2020 coronavirus pandemic and the fall in oil prices, demand for supertankers fell. However, during the period of low quotations, supertankers were used to store surplus oil, and the crisis in the transportation market was invisible. Now, when, due to the OPEC + deal, oil production in the world has decreased, and demand has begun to grow against the backdrop of the recovery of the global economy, supertankers do not need any means of transportation, no place to store oil.
Clarkson Research Services, a division of the world’s largest ship broker, estimates that about 2 percent of all supertankers will go to scrap in 2021. This will mainly affect vessels over 15 years old. For comparison, in 2019 and 2020, the indicator was almost zero. An additional incentive for companies to send supertankers for scrap may come from the fact that scrap prices are currently at their highest since March 2018.
Most supertanker owners do not expect revenue to recover earlier than the second half of 2021. Then it is expected that the demand for oil will return to the pre-crisis level. This, in turn, should lead to an increase in the volume of oil transportation by sea.