With May through June of this year recording some of the highest tanker rates ever,
we saw rates in steep decline for the better part of August. An end to Iranian crude
storage in the AG, seasonal slackening of demand for refinery maintenance/turnaround,
a decrease in Eastern inventory, and yes, quite possibly some consumer demand erosion
due to high crude/product pricing all seem to have taken some toll on shipping demand.

Down but not out, the end of August has seen some rebound off the bottom for tanker rates.
Many of the factors that have conspired to make this year one of the bestever for owners -
more double hull fixing in the AG, high levels of FO/crude moving from West to the East
and strong increase of exports from Brazil and East Med, are still strong driving
factors that have not gone away.

Despite some signs of weakening rates this week in the dirty tanker segments, July has marked yet another extraordinary
month of high tanker rates overall and continued a sustained trend that began in mid-April (VLCC TCE returns have
been well in excess of usd 120k/day since May). Now we are left to speculate just what is in store for the balance of the year.

We generally see a dampening of tanker demand due to refinery turnaround and maintainence scheduled in the August through September timeframe. Additionally, there is a strong belief that the high crude/product prices is eroding consumer demand/reducing consumption somewhat. This all being said, and while rates can and likely will settle back from the levels of
the last three months, this remains a difficult market to bet against - it has shown fantastic resilience and staying power.