The cost of sending 30,000 mt fuel oil and dirty product cargoes from the Black Sea to the Mediterranean has dropped to its lowest level of 2015 because of extremely light charterer inquiry in the Black Sea and Mediterranean regions, shipping sources said.

Rates on the Black Sea-Med route, basis 30,000 mt, were assessed Worldscale 5 lower at w150 Thursday.

This equates to $18.71/mt, the lowest since an $18.61/mt assessment on October 31.

Sources have said that a slowdown in the number of cargoes entering the market in recent weeks had caused a huge oversupply of Handysize tankers in the Black Sea and Med.

“Looking at the tonnage lists I can’t see any comeback for the owners in the short term. There is very little inquiry, certainly not enough to clear up the oversupply of ships,” a shipbroker said.

The huge number of available vessels has severely dented sentiment in the market, with little hope of too much of a rise in rates in the near future.

“The market is in free fall, it’s absolutely miserable,” a second shipbroker said.

One potential ray of light for owners is that many of the cargoes this week were market quotes — where a charterer quotes the cargo to its panel of brokers, who then set about collecting orders from a wide range of owners. This contrasts with private cargoes where typically only one charterer, one owner and one broker are involved.

On a market quote, as there are more offers from shipowners, it is often possible for the charterer to obtain a lower freight rate.

“The market could be slightly stronger than it seems now, it’s being judged on the basis of a few market quotes,” a third shipbroker said. “But it’s still hard not to call it at those sort of levels in the absence of any other activity.”