China’s Bright Horizon

China’s growing reliance on seabourne crude oil imports will set the tone of the tanker market for the coming decade. Its reported spot market program has increased five-fold over the past ten years; rising from an equivalent of 11 VLCCs in 2000 to one of more than 55 VLCCs last year. Large Chinese oil companies also have contracts of affreightment and term coverage with a variety of international shipping players, so the reported sport market shows only part of this immense picture. Download here