DHT Holdings has reported an $8m loss for the second quarter, in line with a $7.7m loss in the same period last year.

Wärtsilä has launched a new aframax tanker design, designed for lowest possible operating costs and high environmental efficiency, which it will be exhibiting on its stand, 3.102.  

The misery goes on in the large crude tanker sector with most routes delivering abysmal earnings for owners. VLCC earnings out of the Gulf last week were $6,000 a day or worse East and West.

Tanker Investments, subsidiary of Teekay, has entered into an agreement to acquire two 2012-built aframax tankers and two 2010-built VLCCs for approximately $250m in total.

Euronav has formed a joint venture with Blackstone’s GSO Capital Partners to buy five tankers being sold by the bankrupt Overseas Shipholding Group (OSG).

The spike in VLCC rates towards the end of 2013 did little to improve the outturn for this class of vessels for the year as a whole. Average earnings for VLCCs, according to Clarksons Research, averaged a miserable $16,009 a day for the year...

The misery continues for large tanker owners with VLCCs earning less than $10,000 a day on average. Suezmaxes are doing a little better at almost $20,000 a day, while aframaxes are around $12,000 a day.

It was another grim week for the large tanker market with VLCC rates barely covering bunker and port costs let alone other operating costs despite a steady stream of Gulf cargoes according to Braemar Seascope.