The cost of shipping oil and petroleum products could fall sharply next year because a timetable settled last week for eliminating single-hulled tankers is not as stringent as tanker owners had expected.
'The change of schedule has far-reaching consequences,' said Oslo broker Fearnleys in a report. 'We must assume that rates will fall even lower than previously expected.'
Last October, the United Nations' legislative body for shipping, the International Maritime Organisation (IMO), agreed on a draft timetable for phasing out single-hulled tankers.
The draft timetable raised fears of a tanker shortage and soaring freight rates.
Tanker owners rushed to the shipyards to place orders for hundreds of double-hulled ships to cash in on the anticipated boom.
When the IMO's Marine Environmental Protection Committee announced the finalised timetable last week, it had been watered down, and analysts are now questioning how the wave of new tanker deliveries will find employment.