Freight market strength was about to be put to the test at the end of last week. The Arab embargo on oil exports to the US and Holland knocked the bottom out of the tanker boom, bringing oil rates plummeting down, almost overnight, to just a fraction of their previous all-time-high levels. This prompted owners of dual-purpose ore/bulk/ oil carriers to switch their tonnage to dry cargo employment, where recent peak rates of hire either steadied or improved.
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