London (Platts)--1Mar2011/911 am EST/1411 GMT
Spot Worldscale freight rates for tankers shipping crude into Northwest Europe from the Baltic region rose Tuesday, due to a lack of available tankers in the region and as icy conditions remain widespread, shipbrokers and owners said. "I'm convinced that the next fixture on handy-size tankers, ex-Baltic, will be a minimum of Worldscale 205," said one shipping broker. Another agreed there was a lack of readily available tankers in the region. Shipping reports for Estonia, Latvia and parts of Russia show there is currently no tug and barge service, with ice conditions requiring a minimum of 1C ice class. Spot Worldscale rates for the Baltic-Northwest Europe route at a 30,000 mt cargo size were assessed at w200 Monday, up from w190 on Friday. So far this year, the highest the rate has been was w205, on January 5. Handysize tankers have a displacement of between 10,000 dwt and 50,000 dwt, and often carry refined oil products, as well as fuel oil cargoes.--Rob Sheridan, robert_sheridan@platts.comSimilar stories appear in Dirty Tankerwire. See more information at http://bit.ly/DirtyTankerwire