Record rates for North Sea AHTS vessels, despite stuttering demand

In its latest report on the offshore vessel market, the broker, Seabrokers, said the last few weeks have seen record high fixture rates recorded, even though demand levels have remained subdued.

In its April 2026 report, published in early May, Seabrokers said, “In a bizarre set of circumstances, the month of March represented the lowest level of AHTS demand that has been recorded for any month this century. However, charterers remain extremely vulnerable to dramatic rate spikes due to the precariously low levels of supply and the limited number of owners still active in this market.

“While demand levels have been at historic lows, fixture rates remained at historic highs, with the NKr4M (US$430,000) threshold reportedly breached for the first time in April for a rig move fixture in Norway.”

Seabrokers said charterers are faring no better on the spot PSV market, since market dynamics started to improve in March, a trend that accelerated in April. 

“We have seen several days recently when the PSV market was completely sold out,” Seabrokers said, “with fixture rates peaking at £30,000-32,500 (US$40,690-44,085) in the UK sector of the North Sea and NKr340,000-350,000 (US$36,700-37,780) in the Norwegian sector.

“Nevertheless, from a charterer’s perspective, the main concern may not be the high rates, but rather the potential risk of having no vessels available at all to satisfy any urgent requirements.”