Majority of Older Tankers Are Involved in 'Grey Fleet' Trades: Gibsons

by Ship & Bunker News Team
Tuesday October 22, 2024

A majority of tankers built 15 or more years ago are now involved in the 'grey fleet', according to brokerage Gibsons.

About 63% of tankers built in 2009 or before and above 25,000 DWT in size are now in the grey fleet as of the past six months of data, the company said in a note on its website.

These ships are trading Iranian, Venezuelan and Russian oil.

The growing grey fleet complicates analysis of the rest of the global tanker fleet, Gibsons said.

"The trading lifespan of these vessels is undoubtedly longer than in the conventional market, but there is no clear indication of likely scrapping age," the company said in the note.

"As such, it will be very challenging, if not impossible to accurately assess the prospects for tanker demolition and evaluate it against the existing orderbook.

"Yet, even if these vessels are not scrapped, they remain unfixable by a large portion of the tanker market, further restricting tonnage supply to mainstream players, despite rising tanker deliveries in the years ahead."

Ship & Bunker News Team
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