Rates for very large crude carriers (VLCCs) on key Asian routes could stay flat or slip lower next week as owners and charterers tussle to give the market direction in the face of fewer cargoes, brokers said. Ship owners were showing a united front to keep rates buoyant even though the volume of cargoes fixed so far for April from the Middle East to Asia is down compared with March, Singapore-based VLCC brokers said on Friday. “We expect the market to remain stable and owners will put up a fight and resist further drops,” said a Singapore-based VLCC broker. “Over the next couple of weeks we expect the pressure to build on rates - volumes are already down - and if this trend continues a further weakening is to be expected.” Charterers are now fixing cargoes for the 10 days in the middle of April which is “propping up” freight rates, another Singapore VLCC broker said. “Rates are not coming off, the market has just not got a direction,” the second broker said. But the total number of cargoes fixed so far is down compared with March, the broker said. “There is still more tonnage than required, but not an epic amount.” Owners are hoping for a repeat in April of what happened at the end of last month when there was a flurry of chartering activity that supported rates, Norwegian ship broker Fearnley said in a note on Wednesday. VLCC rates for the benchmark route from the Middle East to Japan nudged higher to W50 on the Worldscale measure on Thursday, up from W49.50 a week earlier. Supertanker rates from West Africa to China slipped to around W49.50 on Thursday, against W51 a week ago. In other trades, rates for 80,000-tonne Aframax tankers from Southeast Asia to East Coast Australia were slightly higher at W105.75 on Thursday, compared with W105 last week on tighter tonnage supply. Clean tanker rates from Singapore to Japan fell as the number of ships available for charter rose as cargo volumes eased, a Singapore-based clean tanker broker said on Friday. Rates dropped to W149 on Thursday, down from W157 last week which had been the highest since April 2013.