The below is an excerpt of an interview in Shippingwatch, published April 29th 2019.
Written by Tomas Kristiansen and Daniel Logan Berg-Munch.
"The 2018 results are results that reflect the past, and when we say that 2018 was the turning point, we are referring to the fact that we feel the markets have strong fundamentals, and toward the end of 2018 we saw signs that the sentiment shifted (...) Therefore we believe 2018 was the bottom."
Mørch highlights a range of factors (...) that combined render him optimistic regarding future prospects for the otherwise distressed chemical market.
Firstly, the company is seeing strong growth in demand for long sailings in particular, and Mørch points to increasing export from the US and Middle East. From here, chemicals must be shipped across greater distances, which adds extra ton-mile demand to a fundamental market growth of 3-4 percent.
"At the same time, there are virtually no new orders for chemical tankers, so supply is expected to grow about 2.6 percent p.a. in the coming period."
Moreover, one of the great pests of the chemical market seems to be retreating – namely product tankers, which due to a weak domestic market have been cargo hunting on the chemical market.
"As the product markets are improving, we see swing tonnage disappearing from chemicals, which is helping the real supply situation in our markets."
