Oil tanker The daily earnings of supertankers on the benchmark Middle East to Japan route hit a six-year high in mid-December, in part due to China building up its strategic reserves on the back of low oil prices. According to aggregated data from the Baltic Exchange, daily earnings reached $97,489 on the Middle East to Japan route, the highest levels since 2008. Only six months ago, tanker rates were so low ship owners could not cover their daily operating expenses of up to $20,000. “Somebody call the bucket brigade, because the tanker market is officially on fire,” said Noah Parquette, an analyst at Canaccord Genuity, the brokerage company. The rally in tanker rates is a welcome boost for an industry that has been ravaged in recent years. With oil prices dropping to below $60 a barrel for the first time since May 2009 — down almost 50 per cent […]