(Feb 4): Tankers moving crude from the Middle East to China charged the highest fees in more than two months this week, after tensions over Iran combined with tight vessel supply to drive up prices.
The daily earnings of a vessel on the benchmark TD3C route reached nearly US$126,000 on Tuesday (Feb 3), marking about a fourfold gain this year and the highest rate since late November, according to data published by the Baltic Exchange.
Rates surged 62% on Friday, as fears of possible US-led military action against the Islamic Republic intensified. On the day, reports of Tehran considering live-firing exercises spooked markets while Bloomberg News reported that Greece, home to the world’s largest tanker fleet, had warned ships to stay away from Iran’s coast when moving through the Strait of Hormuz.
Recent purchases by owners such as Sinokor Merchant Marine Co, with its acquisition of nearly 30 mid-aged vessels, tightened the supply of tankers available for near-term charters, said Wanying Zhang, a freight analyst with the ship-tracking platform Vortexa Ltd. “With fewer vessels available for immediate hire, the remaining independent shipowners have gained significant pricing power,” she said.
Last week’s speculation about escalating tensions between Iran and the US prompted a rush from charterers to secure vessels ahead of any potential supply disruption, shipbrokers said. Owners responded by raising their rates. As a result, the global Worldscale index, which captures the cost of transporting oil through a complex analysis of freight routes, jumped from 105 to 140 on Friday due to potential disruptions affecting the TD3C route, brokers said.
See also: Maersk cuts jobs, sees drop in earnings as Red Sea reopens
Concerns over Middle East developments continue to rattle the freight and wider commodities markets. On Tuesday, US President Donald Trump said Washington and Tehran are going ahead with talks after an American warplane shot down a drone in the Arabian Sea. Earlier, the US had said Iranian vessels and a drone had approached a US-flagged tanker transiting the Strait of Hormuz.
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