According to Charles Weber, scrapping ratio of tanker capacity has declined to a new low in the last four years.
In the weekly report, Charles Weber points out that totally 2.90m dwt were scrapped by the end of May this year, less than 50% of the volume in the same period of last year.
Since the middle of 2012, scrapping rates have kept declining to current price $440/LTD. At the same period in 2011, the price is about $490-514/LTD and the total volume is about 3.50m dwt.
Scrapping volume of Aframax tanker has accounted for 1.4% of the fleet, the highest type. Totally 24 new Aframax tanker are delivered till now, falling by 44% year on year. 0.8% of VLCC fleet were scrapped in the same period while new vessel proportion declined to 8%.
According to Charles Weber, shipowners are likely to speed up tanker scrapping under the pressure of low profits and high cost. The tanker demolition market may reverse to another trend.