I am interested in tracking oil tanker cargos out of the carribean.
They are designated "aframax" I believe.  They are not fixed that
often.  I estimate one or two a week.  Can anyone tell me how I can
stay current by giving me a source of data or can anyone tell me about
any aframax rates that have been fixed in the last week

Hi infopros-ga,

There is a weekly report published by Astrup Fearnley out of Norway
that provides a quite a comprehesive summary of the most up to data
information concerning all sorts of rates and market conditions,
including Aframax. The updates appear to be made on Wednesday of each
week, as the most current is dated September 18th:

http://www.fearnleys.no/fearnleys/dokumenter/weekly.pdf

From the source above, I managed to pull out a few pieces of
information concerning Carribean rates and Astramax in particular:

"After a healthy increase last week, the Caribs Aframax market again
dropped to around the ws100 level."

"Slightly busier trade in the Caribbean but rates remain low. Freight
average WS 127.5-130 on 38,000 tons whilst 28,500 tons paying WS 155
for the usual Carib-USAC/USG run."

In addition, there are several tables indicating rate comparisions for
the current week, last week, and the lows and highs for the year. The
corresponding data for the Carribean is as follows:

DIRTY
Caribs / USG 70,000 100.0 140.0 95.0 175.0
CLEAN (Spot WS)
Caribs / USNH 28,500 155 155 155 235


There are also measures for Aframax in total, among others, for the
same measures (current week, last week, and the lows and highs for the
year)
1 YEAR T/C (usd per day)
Aframax (modern) 16,500 16,500 16,500 18,000

Additional information can be obtained directly from Fearnleys. This
is a multi-service firm and so any additional details you may be
seeking are likely to have some fees attached:

FEARNLEYS AS
P.O BOX 1158 SENTRUM
0107 OSLO
PHONE: + 47 22 93 60 00
www.fearnleys.com

However, if the above information is of enough detail for you, it is
safe to say that you can visit the same URL each week and obtain the
most recent version of the publication.

Here is another source that appears to post all updates regarding the
Aframax (all locations) each Friday. Only changes are noted...it is
not a complete report. The most recent entry is September 20th. Here
is an excerpt regarding the Carribean Aframax (dated September 13th):

"The Caribbean firmed upto W130 last Friday and continued moving up in
the early part of this week reaching W140 by late on Monday. However
subsequent lack of activity has seen rates fall off slightly and, with
continued inactivity, we would expect this trend to continue."

http://www.galbraiths.co.uk/tanker/aframax.htm

In addition, our search returned a market report concerning Aframax
which you may be interested in:

"AFRAMAX TANKERS: Facing Up to a New Challenge"
http://www.drewry.co.uk/frame2.phtml?loc=info/mr026.phtml

Search strategy: 
://www.google.ca/search?num=30&hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&safe=off&q=aframax+rates+caribbean&spell=1

If you have any problems understanding the information above please
feel free to post a clarification :)

Cheers!

answerguru-ga

Your work enabled me to find a source.