Requirements of the ballast water convention and the 0.5% global sulphur cap on bunkers are likely to drive older tonnage to an early grave. We present a scrapping outlook based on our view of how owners are likely to respond to the two regulations.

A few months ago, owners looked like they were in for a couple of years of weak but by no means disastrous earnings before things started to pick up in 2019. This might still be your conclusion reading our current assessment of time charter rates for periods between one and five years. It would also be confirmed by the FFA forward curve that is now slowly creeping out to 2020.