Spot charter rates for the global LNG carrier fleet are now below $200,000 per day as they continue their downward trend since the last month.
In October, both the Atlantic and Pacific rates for 160,000-cbm TFDE carriers climbed above $400,000/day, with the Atlantic rate reaching more than $480,000/day.
However, the rates began sliding some three weeks ago and continued the trend last week to drop below $300,000 per day.
“LNG freight rates continue their rapid decline across both basins to under $200,000/day, with the Spark30S Atlantic spot rate having halved in the last two weeks,” Spark Commodities said on Friday.
“At current levels, rates are now lower than this time last year,” it said.
The Atlantic spot LNG freight rate reached $182,500 per day on Friday, Spark’s data shows.
Spark previously said that the ongoing Freeport restart delays was one of the main reasons for the drop in the Atlantic rate.
Last week, the operator of the 15 mtpa Freeport LNG export terminal on Quintana Island again delayed the restart of the facility in Texas.
Freeport LNG is now targeting initial production at the facility by the end of this year.
Prior to the shutdown on June 8, most of the cargoes produced at the plant this year landed in Europe.
This is the case with other US LNG terminals as well as European countries import record volumes of LNG in order to replace Russian gas pipeline supplies.
According to Rystad Energy, Europe imported over 11.4 million tonnes of LNG in November, a new record high for the year.
As per prices in Europe and Asia, the Dutch TTF for January settled at $43.083 per MMBtu on Thursday while the JKM settled at $34.295 per MMBtu.
