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By Sing Yee Ong and Stephen Stapczynski
The cost of transporting liquefied natural gas across the Atlantic Ocean surged to the highest in almost two years, as expanding exports from North America boosted demand for tankers.
The spot rate to hire an LNG vessel for delivery from the US to Europe jumped 19% to $98,250 per day on Monday, the highest since January 2024, according to Spark Commodities, which tracks shipping prices. Costs to hire a tanker in the Pacific Ocean also jumped 15% to the highest in over a year, the data show.
This is a stark turnaround for the market, which had languished at rock-bottom prices for most of the year amid a glut of available ships. Output from North America has increased steadily as new projects ramp up, requiring more vessels to deliver the fuel to customers in Europe and Asia.
Source: Spark Commodities
Note: Spark values are for 174k cubic-meter vessels, and calculated on a round-trip basis, including hire, ballast bonus and lump sum estimates
The 30-day moving average for LNG exports from North America has climbed nearly 40% year-to-date, according to ship-tracking data compiled by Bloomberg.
Higher freight rates threaten to widen the spread between Asian and European gas prices, as it will be more expensive to send US shipments to the Pacific. A company booked a vessel for December in the Atlantic for about $100,000 per day, traders said.
Likewise, when freight rates were lower, companies sent some vessels to Asia, further exacerbating a shortage of ships in the Atlantic, they added.
Still, the surge in charter rates is likely to have peaked and has “limited potential to run much higher,” according to Han Wei, a BloombergNEF analyst.
“On the LNG tanker supply side, we’ll continue to see strong new build deliveries, which should keep spot charter rates in check,” he said.
— With assistance from Yongchang Chin and Ruth Liao
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