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TEN sees 'elements of sustainability' in tanker market recovery

TEN sees 'elements of sustainability' in tanker market recovery
Tsakos Energy Navigation (TEN) was back in the black in the first half of 2014 with a $14.8m net profit.

The profit for the first half of the year compared to a $0.5m loss in the same period in 2013, and TEN said the turnaround was largely due to the improvement in crude tanker rates in the first quarter of 2014.

In the first half of the year average daily charter rates increased 12.9% to $20,418 compared to $18,090 in the first half of 2013. Lower rates in much of the second quarter of 2014 saw the company make a small profit of $0.2m compared to a loss of $1.5m in the same period a year earlier. Fleet utlisation stood at 98% in the first half.

The company saw the improvement of tanker markets in the first half of 2014 as having “elements of sustainability”.

Looking ahead it said: “With rates for the crude market, during most of the first quarter and the last few weeks of the second quarter at levels that most could describe as 'booming' coupled with a relatively low orderbook, the decrease in new vessel introductions, the potential development of a sustained contango in oil prices, that could see oil companies and traders use more vessels for floating storage, provides a potential platform for what could lie ahead.”

Geo-political issues in the Ukraine and the Middle East were seen as potentially boosting tanker rates as they could result in new, longer routes increasing the tonne mile demand.

The company has nine aframax tankers and one LNG carrier on order for delivery in 2016 and 2017.