- Extreme weather conditions prevails in the US Gulf Coast.
- This has affected the american tanker markets.
- Several industries like the refineries, petrochemical plants, steel plants have been affected.
Pilot services on the US Gulf Coast maritime waterways was affected on Tuesday, due to terrible icy conditions that prevailed in the region. The extreme cold along with the high winds have made this rough for maritime activities, which has severely affected the American tanker markets resulting in delays and lacklustre trading.
All USGC pilot services and ship channels were set to resume operations sometime Wednesday afternoon, according to Moran-Gulf shipping agency reports.
“I was talking to a guy that [worked] at the terminals down on the Gulf [who] said when this kind of stuff happens everything just slows to a halt, so I expect there to be some delays [in dirty tanker positions] in the coming days”, said a source close to the dirty tanker market.
Already-growing tonnage over the three-day Martin Luther King Jr. holiday weekend took on further length and started to place downward pressure on clean freight rates for tankers loading on the USGC to intra- and interregional destinations.
“The ship channel being closed has had tonnage stack up even more,” a clean shipbroker said in light of the sluggish demand at the start of the week that is expected to pick up by end-Wednesday.
Freight rates affected
The USGC position lists viewed by S&P Global Platts showed 58 vessels which were expected to open during the next 10 days, including around 12 prompt units but the friday position showed a more realistic supply list with 40 vessels including 3 prompt units. The medium range tanker freight rates on the USGC-Caribs were down to $25,000 while that on the USGC-transatlantic route was steady at a level of w135, on Wednesday morning.
Yet shipping rates on East Coast Mexico markets were seen to find support from recent weather related logistical disruptions. On the clean tanker market, trips from the USGC to EC Mexico are being talked at $330,000 lump sum although the run was last heard done at $350,000 lump sum and is expected to find upward support from inclement weather in Mexico on Thursday and Friday.
“PMI is pulling a lot of ships off the list, which should buoy everything a bit,” a third source said. “PMI drives the show in the USGC.”
East Coast Mexico dirty Panamax rates were trading at a small premium to Caribbean freight due to thinner positions and the inclement weather causing some delays on short-haul runs in the Gulf of Mexico.A deal was reportedly done on an east coast Guatemala loader for an Upcoast run at [Worldscale 110], a rough proxy for an ECMexico-USGC journey, a source said lending support to a slightly firmer premium on Panamaxes loading in the Gulf relative to the Caribbean. Firm details on the booking could not be confirmed.
Houston Ship Channel closes abruptly
The 52 mile Houston Ship Channel which provides access from the Gulf of Mexico, is set to open at 1 pm CST (2100 GMT). “At 1300 hours two arrivals and seven sailings are set to proceed,” said the port agent JJ Plunkett.
However, the Channel issued a low water warning, according to which deep draft vessels will be delayed as strong north winds and high pressure continue to move through the area, as these winds pushed considerable amount of water out of the waterway. 22 vessels were waiting for inbound sail while 19 vessels were waiting for outbound sail. This abrupt closing has hit many industries like the petrochemical plants, steel and metal plants, and the refineries.
The Sabine pilots were the first to close down at 10 am, followed by the Aransas Corpus Christi pilots af 1:45 pm and pilots on the Mississippi River at 6 pm, according to Moran-Gulf shipping agencies. The Houston Ship Channel and Texas City/Galveston ship channels were closed to all traffic at 4 pm.
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Source: Platts
