Tank Barge - Past Reports

As of April, Marcon had 13 inland and 18 ocean/coastal tank barges available for sale out of 676 tracked. The tank barge market remains strong, still in a recovery trend. The inland market is experiencing high utilization and rising rates. The coastal market is steady, with decent utilization and fairly flat rates. Available for sale ocean and inland tank barges are becoming more difficult to find, though we have a few ocean barges in the 80,000BBL range available.

As of October, Marcon had 14 inland and 22 ocean/coastal tank barges available for sale out of 673 tracked. The tank barge market remains strong on a continued uptrend fueled by higher commodity demand and prices. The inland market is strong with high utilization and rising rates. Utilization in the 90 percent range, coupled with low levels of new construction of barges, is driving rates higher. The coastal market is steady, but still suffering from an overhang of excess capacity.

As of April, Marcon had 19 inland and 21 ocean/coastal tank barges available for sale out of 676 tracked. Rampant inflation in the commercial marine industry is causing all costs in the tank barge sector to rapidly rise. Oil prices have soared since the February 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine and looks to continue. Newbuilding costs in the US are up roughly 40%-50% from November 2021 to March 2022, having an immediate effect on newbuilding market demand, while boosting the demand for working / certified tonnage in the US petroleum barging market. Currently the inland market has high utilization rates due to demand exceeding supply, whereas the coastal market is lagging with excess tonnage languishing on the market.

As of October, Marcon had 19 inland and 25 ocean or coastal tank barges available for sale out of 679 tracked, eight fewer inland but nine more ocean than was available one year ago. The tank barge market in the U.S. has continued to struggle over the past several months. Much can be attributed to reduced shipment volumes related to the Covid-19 Delta variance. Inland market utilization, which was hit hard by Hurricane Ida, should improve at a faster rate than coastal market utilization, but we hope for both to eventually settle out at pre-pandemic levels.

As of April, Marcon had 28 inland and 20 ocean or coastal tank barges available for sale out of 670 tracked, slightly more than was available one year ago. The tank barge market was in recovery mode in early 2021 as the COVID-19 pandemic eased and utilization increased. However, Winter Storm Uri dealt the industry a major setback when a majority of refineries in the Gulf of Mexico were shutdown. As of this report, utilization is nearly back to pre-Uri levels and forecast to increase as COVID re-opening continues and the economy recovers.