The ongoing pandemic turbulence of 2021 has meant choppy waters in the world of seaborne energy freight, yet many market participants remain optimistic that calmer waters are right around the corner.

In this webinar, Vortexa’s Senior Freight Analyst Arthur Richier and Freight Analyst Ioannis Papadimitrou deep-dive into whether this optimism for recovery is well-placed, or if the market fundamentals are likely to falter and the carefully stacked house of cards is likely to topple.

Watch the full webinar below to understand the global indicators impacting crude flows, refined product flows and international freight markets.

Core takeaways from the session:

Crude markets:

• Crude oil supply remains tight as the majority of countries are actually supplying less rather than more
• Demand is failing to recover as strongly as hoped because of the continued pandemic

Refined product markets:

• CPP tanker tonne-miles are rising owing to East-West Suez movements
• More vessels heading towards the East are capping freight rates, hence keeping earnings at multi-year lows.

Other insights:

• Illicit trading opportunities ex-Iran and Venezuela are incentivising owners to utilise old VLCCs, subduing scrapping activity.
• A gloom crude freight environment has forced more Afra/LR2 to switch to clean, effectively increasing vessel availability for cargoes on LR2 tankers