Tanker Market: Correction Over, or Is There is Still Some Room Left? in Hellenic Shipping News 10/01/2026 The tanker market is seeking some forward momentum after the first few days of trading in the new year. In its latest weekly report, shipbroker Fearnley’s said that in the VLCC market, “no” is also a complete sentence and with WS 50 give/take having been repeated MEG/East a few times it seems the owning community has finally drawn a line in the sand as daily earnings have been falling dramatically in the last few days, close to OPEX in some cases. However, even if the rot has stopped there’s still a bit of cleaning up to do before we can see some meaningful rate gains from the MEG, although early third decade January requirements might have to tempt with an extra point or two to get across the line, not to mention the likes India’s state owned IOC having quoted a replacement job off the 11th of January. The Atlantic, however, should have some legs with VLCC looking to cannibalise on still healthy-ish Suezmax rates”. Source: Fearnleys In the Suezmax segment, “TD20 has now fallen to WS 117.5 on a 2008-built vessel. After multiple weeks trading at higher lump-sum levels compared to VLCCs, Suezmaxes have finally corrected down to a level where taking a VLCC with a part cargo is no longer viable in the West. During this period of irrational pricing differences, VLCCs have taken a greater share of West Africa cargoes compared to normal conditions. In the MEG, VLCCs also continue to absorb cargoes both long and short. Although VLCCs show some stability and possible upside, Suezmax owners will still need to adjust ideas downward to claw back cargoes. Pure fundamentals aside, geopolitics will certainly have a positive effect on sentiment – we shall see what transpires”, Fearnley’s said. Meanwhile, in the Aframax part of the market, in the North Sea, there is “a slow start to the new year so far with only a couple of enquiries in the first half of the week. Natural window pushing to 16-18 window with relets and Suez taking a lot of the available stems prior to mid month. US markets remain steady which is encouraging owners to ballast especially for those that have missed the dates and are looking at waiting time. Softer market sentiment but will steady out with vessels leaving the area. Source: Fearnleys Mediterranean Despite the massive tonnage list a week ago and still a couple of ppt vessels, rates in the Mediterranean seem to have find a floor or be near there. 2026 flats have been tested and established now with owners happily fixing around last-dones. Balance of 2nd decade isn’t expected to be that busy so a small correction is on the cards however US market will play its role attracting ballasters”, the shipbroker concluded. Nikos Roussanoglou, Hellenic Shipping News Worldwide Tops 2026-01-10 hellenicshippingnews... window.___gcfg = {lang: 'en-US'}; (function(w, d, s) { function go(){ var js, fjs = d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0], load = function(url, id) { if (d.getElementById(id)) {return;} js = d.createElement(s); js.src = url; js.id = id; fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js, fjs); }; load('//connect.facebook.net/en/all.js#xfbml=1', 'fbjssdk'); load('https://apis.google.com/js/plusone.js', 'gplus1js'); load('//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js', 'tweetjs'); } if (w.addEventListener) { w.addEventListener("load", go, false); } else if (w.attachEvent) { w.attachEvent("onload",go); } }(window, document, 'script')); tweet Share