Gasoline Shipments Slide as Profit Vanishes: Energy Markets

Bookings of tankers to ship European gasoline across the Atlantic fell in August as the profit margin from the trade slid to the lowest level in a year.

Traders and oil companies chartered 21 vessels to transport the auto fuel to the U.S. Atlantic Coast from Europe last month, down from 24 in July and 30 in June, according to data compiled by Bloomberg and Clarkson Research Services Ltd., a unit of the world’s biggest shipbroker. The decrease occurred as U.S. gasoline inventories reached 14 percent above the five-year average in the week ending Sept. 3, Energy Department data show.