Airlines to Shippers Cast Picture of Fast-Souring Oil Demand

Aviation and marine fuels together account for more than 10% of global oil consumption.

Photographer: Kristian Bocsi/Bloomberg
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The world’s big industrial-scale consumers of oil are flashing warning lights for demand as the tariff war causes the outlook for the global economy to deteriorate.

Several US airlines withdrew earnings guidance for this year over the past several weeks, citing uncertainty in the global economic environment and a recent spate of soft domestic bookings. In the freight market, more than 40% of container ship capacity between Asia and the US has been canceled for some of the coming weeks and top liners are using smaller vessels to meet customer needs.