Carib Tanker Rates Tank In New Year

Caribbean dirty tanker trades have sustained a massive hit, tumbling from W255 at the end of last week to W202.5, New York brokers said. "The holiday doldrums have left a lot of spare tonnage and that has affected rates. With both Christmas and New Year's Day falling on Mondays this year, we've had two short weeks in a row and the market simply couldn't take that," said one dirty tanker broker. He pointed to Exxon's fixture of the 70,000 tonr Lucky Lady from Covenas to the U.S. Gulf as the initial blow to the market. The fall in rates ends a bull-run that began in November last year and peaked in December at just below W400. "From there it just went down in 10 point increments until we got to 202.5," he said. Exxon fixed the Hudson Spirit, also a 70,000 tonr, from the East Coast of Mexico to the U.S. Gulf at W202.5, Oslo brokers said Tuesday. The New York broker said the outlook was slow. "The question is when will we come to the end of the holiday low," he said. "At the end of the week or early next week it might hit the bottom and bounce back up." - (Reuters)