China’s Unipec remained the top spot charterer of dirty tankers and VLCCs in the first half of 2016, according to Poten & Partners.
In stock of the spot market activity in the dirty tanker market nothing (much) has changed between 2015 and 2016.
The top seven charterers are exactly the same as last year. Unipec is still on top and even expanded its lead slightly (from 13.4% of the total in 2015 to 13.8% in 2016 YTD).
Not surprisingly, the leading charterers hail from China (Unipec, Petrochina), India (IOC, Reliance), complemented by the super-majors and the leading traders. As a reminder, these rankings are all based on reported spot fixtures.
In the VLCC segment, Unipec continues to be the dominant spot charterer with 258 reported fixtures, equivalent to the volume of the next five largest combined!
Bahri remains a significant player in the VLCC market and its listing as No. 4 in the ranking of reported spot market fixtures is not a correct reflection of their real influence in the large vessel segment.
In the Suezmax segment the traditional oil majors still rule, with all the majors that are remaining of the original “Seven Sisters” (Chevron, Shell, BP and ExxonMobil) represented in the top 10. Chevron continues to lead the pack, followed by Repsol (2nd) and Unipec (3rd).
International oil traders are the best represented in the Aframax segment. Vitol maintains the lead, while 2nd placed ST Shipping has moved up the ranks (up from 5th in 2015). Trafigura also improved their position relative to last year (from 9th to 6th).