Earnings for very large crude carriers shipping oil from the Middle East to the US fell to historic lows.

High bunker prices continue to erode returns and newbuildings entering service keep tonnage availability stubbornly high.

VLCCs shipping 280,000-tonne cargoes were making losses of $13,261 per day on the trading route, the Baltic Exchange reported this week — the lowest level since the freight indices provider started reporting time charter equivalent earnings back in April 2008.
London-headquartered shipbroker ICAP Shipping quoted time charter equivalent earnings at the slightly better level of minus $11,204 per day.