As June closes out, it marks the end to an astoundingly high Q2 tanker market. Aided largely by increased  Middle East exports and also by strike events in France, disruptions in Nigeria, tanker storage in Iran, etc.., VLCCs have traded at well above $100,000/day TCE over the entire period. This strong trend has not been isolated to the VLCCs as other dirty tanker segments have enjoyed similar relative strength with only the clean sector lagging somewhat.

The worldwide inventory build occurred in Q2 which is likely to continue in early Q3 is strikingly similar to 2006, a year in which we saw trends depart dramatically from the typical seasonality expected. In that year, Q4 was a non event with disappointing rates across all sectors - many feel that we will mimic that cycle for end Q3 and Q4 this year once again.