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Global shippers of crude and fuels are grappling with a spike in booking costs for some tankers taking lengthy diversions to avoid disruptions at the Suez and Panama canals.
Chartering costs for a so-called Suezmax, the largest class of oil tanker that can pass through the Suez Canal with its tanks full, soared as more ships opted to sail around Africa to avoid attacks in the Red Sea.
They can carry 1 million barrels of oil when fully laden, and are often used to transport crude from Russia or the Mediterranean Sea to Asia, or from the Middle East to Europe.
Rates for another class of ships known as long-range tankers also jumped.
They can move about 600 000 barrels of oil, and are used to carry crude and fuels such as diesel and naphtha through the Suez and Panama canals.
LR-tankers, sometimes referred to as Panamaxes, have also been impacted by diversions from the Panama Canal, where record-low water levels have contributed to a snarl.
In recent weeks, attacks by Houthi rebels in the Red Sea have caused panic across the shipping industry, with everything from oil to container vessels targeted as the Israel-Hamas war spreads across the region.
The market for vessels purpose-built for the Suez Canal, as well as smaller ships, is being upended as more tankers get stuck on longer voyages, crimping their availability, while it’s business-as-usual for supertankers that don’t use any canals or shortcuts due to their large size.
This week, provisional chartering rates for a Suezmax tanker to move oil from Iraq to the Mediterranean rose above 90 worldscale points, said shipbrokers.
That’s a sharp jump from between 75 to 85 points in provisional bookings made earlier in the week.
These points represent a percentage of a fixed, pre-determined rate for a given route, and tend to fluctuate according to supply and demand dynamics. — Bloomberg
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