Two Chinese state-controlled shipping companies have stopped sending oil tankers through the Strait of Hormuz and Bab al-Mandab, instead loading crude outside the Persian Gulf amid heightened security risks, Reuters reported on Tuesday, citing industry sources and shipping data.
COSCO Shipping Energy Transportation and China Merchants Energy Shipping have kept their vessels away from both chokepoints since late July following communications with Chinese central authorities, sources told Reuters.
The two companies control more than 100 very large crude carriers, each capable of transporting about 2 million barrels. Before the Iran war began in late February, they carried roughly half of China’s crude imports from the Middle East, excluding sanctioned Iranian oil.
The Strait of Hormuz remains largely closed after a brief interim agreement between Iran and the United States collapsed. Yemen’s Houthis announced a maritime embargo against Saudi Arabia on July 20, increasing risks around Bab al-Mandab at the entrance to the Red Sea.
China- and Hong Kong-owned vessels have increasingly used ship-to-ship transfers in the Gulf of Oman. Transfers exceeded 600,000 barrels per day in June and July, compared with no recorded activity in April and May, Kpler data showed.
Four COSCO supertankers and one operated by China Merchants loaded oil through transfers off Fujairah in July. About two dozen vessels operated by the companies are scheduled to load outside the Persian Gulf between August and mid-September, mainly near Fujairah and Omani ports, according to the report.
Higher freight rates have also made the alternative routes more profitable, with estimated daily tanker margins rising to about $110,000 from $30,000 to $40,000 before the war.
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