Freight rates for shipping naphtha and other clean oil products from the Middle East to Japan have jumped 13% to their highest levels in nearly two weeks after Washington imposed sanctions on tanker subsidiaries of China’s COSCO, according to industry sources and Refinitiv data.
Rates for crude and oil products tankers have shot up as traders avoided ships linked to COSCO Shipping Tanker (Dalian) Co, Ltd, after the sanctions were announced.
The shipping index benchmark for Long-Range 1 (LR1) vessels which can carry 55,000 tonnes of clean products from the Middle East to Japan, also known as TC5, rose above 107 as of Friday on Worldscale (W), an industry tool used to calculate freight charges, trade and shipping sources said.
