The prospect of expensive special surveys on old tankers in the current weak market should prompt more shipowners to scrap vessels.

Norway’s RS Platou Markets expects the industry to demolish 20m dwt this year and remove an additional 15m dwt from service in 2013.

The 20m dwt figure is more than double the tanker tonnage sold for demolition last year and should help to alleviate overcapacity in the chartering markets as record numbers of newbuildings enter the global fleet.

Demolition volumes were “behind the curve” in the tanker sector, RS Platou said in its Shipping Quarterly report. But even if this volume is reached, fleet growth should still hit 6% with around 33m dwt of tanker tonnage due to be delivered. This will keep utilisation levels and owners’ earnings low.

According to London-headquartered shipbroker Clarksons’ database, demolition of tankers over 10,000 dwt last reached close to 20m dwt in 2003 at the end of a five-year period that saw levels above 14m dwt.

The highest recorded tanker scrap volumes were in 1985 though, in the middle of the decade’s shipping crisis, when 25.7m dwt were taken out of the fleet.