Mideast Tanker Surplus Shrinks as Chinese Holiday Ends
This article is for subscribers only.
A surplus of supertankers competing for 2 million-barrel cargoes of Middle East oil shrank as a weeklong holiday ended in China, the world’s second-biggest importer of crude.
There are 15 percent more very large crude carriers, or VLCCs, for hire over the next 30 days than there are likely cargoes, according to the median estimate of five people in the shipping industry surveyed by Bloomberg News today. That’s down from 18 percent on Feb. 1. China ended its Lunar New Year celebrations yesterday.