Bloomberg: U.S. Beating Russia in Diesel Shipments Boosts Tankers: Freight

“The U.S. is poised to overtake Russia as the world’s biggest exporter of diesel and heating oil for the first time in at least five decades, sending tanker rates to the highest since 2008. Daily exports from the U.S. will jump 20 percent to 970,000 barrels this year as Russian shipments gain 2.2 percent to 938,000 barrels, according to JBC Energy GmbH, a Vienna-based research company. . . . A contraction in European demand for refined products may not necessarily mean fewer imports from the U.S. because refineries in the region are paying so much more for their feedstock. Brent traded at $112.39 a barrel on Sept. 27 and WTI at $92.19. European demand for imported diesel is still strengthening because so many of the region’s refineries have shut permanently or for maintenance, according to Sabine Schels, a commodity strategist at Bank of America Corp. in London. Europe is at the center of a global diesel supply “crunch,” she wrote in a Sept. 21 report. About 10 percent more output will need to be halted before the industry returns to profitability, Simon Redmond, a director at Standard & Poor’s, told a conference in Brussels last month. The trade in shipments from the U.S. Gulf has grown since 2007 to become a mainstay for ship owners,’ said Jeff McGee, the head of marine research and consulting at Poten & Partners, a New York-based shipbroker. It’s not going to go away and means an employment boost for vessels.”