Tanker: Rates rally on demolition news - The onset of the largest demolition program in a decade will see a rallying of rates in the tanker market, according to E.A. Gibson Shipbrokers. Twenty-three very large crude carriers (VLCCs) are set to be demolished in the current calendar year, with similar scrappings expected up to 2016. Presently, rates are at a record low; figures from Clarkson's show average earnings this year for VLCCs hauling 2mn barrels of crude oil are at their lowest since records began in 1997.