Product tanker rates rally as voyage distances stretch

The clearest signal in refined product shipping this year is not vessel supply but distance. Cargoes that once moved on short regional voyages are increasingly travelling across basins, and each additional sea day removes effective capacity from the market.

Owners have responded by holding out for longer time-charter cover. Charterers, in turn, are booking earlier in the month than they did a year ago, a behavioural shift that itself tightens the spot market.

Port congestion has compounded the effect at several load points, with waiting times adding days to round-trip voyages in the busiest windows.

Analysts caution that the orderbook will eventually catch up. But deliveries scheduled over the next eighteen months look modest relative to the tonne-mile growth already embedded in trade patterns.