Euronav对VLCC大笔投资油轮登上中心舞台

Crude tankers take centre stage as upbeat Euronav swoops on VLCCs

2014年原油运费将上涨，海运业的主要看点将是油轮船队。 圣诞节期间，虽然大多数船东去度假了，但是比利时油运船东Euronav经过努力，把一个巨大的赌注押在了大型油轮市场。许多航运分析师也附和，预测2014年原油运费将上涨，海运的主力将是油轮船队．

While most had their feet up for the holidays, Belgium's Euronav was hard at work taking a massive punt on the big tanker market, as revealed by TradeWinds, and that bullishness is echoed by a number of analysts who predict rising rates for crude tankers in 2014. Shipping analysts say 2014 will be the year of the seagoing workhorse—the tanker.Here arrives Euronav with a $1bn bet on crude carriers. And the upbeat Belgians will use it to list on the New York stock market, having already raised $150m from committed shipping investors GoldenTree and York Capital. It is not just analysts such as FrodeMorkedal at Platou who is gung-ho for tankers, anyway. Omar Nokta of Global Hunter Securities is also predicting higher annual rates—particularly for VLCCs and suezmaxes—over the next three years.ICAP Shipping reported last year that the oiltanker trade was growing at its fastest level in a decade, driven by that extraordinary turnaround in US shale derived crude production.The increasing self-sufficiency of North America is forcing oil-producing countries such as Angola and Venezuela to f ind new markets.These are generally in Asia. China and India in particular have become enormous growth areas for shippers.