D'Amico positive on product tanker medium term outlook

“The tonne-mile demand and vessel utilisation is expected to grow substantially in the years to come,” the shipowner said.

“In fact, the current strong trend of refineries shifting towards oil production areas, especially in Asia and the Middle East, will consolidate in the next few years and the increase of world oil demand will be supported mainly by non-OECD countries, China and India in particular,” it said.

On the vessel supply side side, the effects of the current substantial orderbook of newbuildings are expected to be offset by the significant growth estimated on tonne-mile demand, d'Amico believed.

“In fact, the MR sector net growth is expected to only run at between 2-4% on average until 2016. Therefore it should remain well below the projected growth in seaborne product trade in the same period.

“Considering all these factors and also according to several market researches, we expect spot rates will increase in the medium term and asset values will follow the same trend,” it said.

Meanwhile, d'Amico returned to a $7.59m net profit in the first quarter as against a net loss of $1.46m in the same period a year ago. Revenue improved slightly to $79.48m compared to $77.71m a year ago.

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