Is It Time to Bottom-Fish Crude Tanker Stocks?

Equity Research Analyst, Maritime sector, Drewry Maritime Financial Research

Ankush Kathuria CFA, FRM

Equity Research Analyst, Maritime sector

Maritime Sector, Equity & Credit Research

Drewry Maritime Financial Research

With no ties to other players in the shipping, finance or banking world, we provide a uniquely impartial view of the markets and companies we cover. Our parent organization, Drewry is a leading independent provider of research services to the maritime and shipping industry, employing over 100 professionals across an international network of offices in London, Delhi, Singapore and Shanghai. Combining our market-leading resources with seasoned sector expertise DFRS offers a highly differentiated and comprehensive range of investment and financial research services to lenders and prospective investors in publicly listed maritime and shipping companies. The full service of reports, supporting resources and sector orientated webinars provides our clients with the most complete picture of the organisations under coverage as is possible. We have been charting and analysing the world’s maritime markets for more than 40 years. This unrivalled intelligence and understanding provides the foundation of our research service. Our analysts have access to one of the most up-to-date, comprehensive and reliable sources of market insight and research data available today. We look at globally listed companies within the following sectors: Port Operators, Container Shipping, Container Manufacturing & Leasing, LNG Shipping, Dry Bulk Shipping and Tanker Shipping. Combine in-depth sector expertise with financial analysis focusing on over 50 stocks globally.

Thematic (Sector/Industry)

Hong kong Marine / Thematic (Sector/Industry)

<p>The crude tanker market remained weak in the initial nine months of 2018 as vessel earnings remained below breakeven across vessel classes. However, elevated scrapping activity during the year kept a check on fleet growth, and vessel earnings improved in the fourth quarter of 2018. Unlike others, the stocks of Frontline and DHT Holdings generated an overall return of 20.5% and 9.2% in 2018, respectively. The stocks moved on anticipated lines following our upgrade in August 2018. Few stocks such as Frontline and DHT Holdings crossed our fair value estimate. However, all stocks plunged in December 2018 due to the sell-off pressure on New York exchanges.</p><p>The tanker market has bottomed out in 2018, and we expect a gradual recovery over the next three years as a higher number of demolitions will facilitate market re-balancing by limiting the supply side growth. We expect the stocks to gradually follow the upward trajectory in the second half of 2019 given the optimistic outlook and hence, have awarded ‘Attractive’ rating to tanker stocks under our coverage.</p>

The crude tanker market remained weak in the initial nine months of 2018 as vessel earnings remained below breakeven across vessel classes. However, elevated scrapping activity during the year kept a check on fleet growth, and vessel earnings improved in the fourth quarter of 2018. Unlike others, the stocks of Frontline and DHT Holdings generated an overall return of 20.5% and 9.2% in 2018, respectively. The stocks moved on anticipated lines following our upgrade in August 2018. Few stocks such as Frontline and DHT Holdings crossed our fair value estimate. However, all stocks plunged in December 2018 due to the sell-off pressure on New York exchanges.The tanker market has bottomed out in 2018, and we expect a gradual recovery over the next three years as a higher number of demolitions will facilitate market re-balancing by limiting the supply side growth. We expect the stocks to gradually follow the upward trajectory in the second half of 2019 given the optimistic outlook and hence, have awarded ‘Attractive’ rating to tanker stocks under our coverage.

Tanker Shipping - 2019Gradual Recovery on Horizon