The world’s biggest oil tanker owners have raised the spectre of a market crash only weeks after the closure of the Strait of Hormuz helped power the industry to a quarter of record profits.
Owners are braced for a steep drop in the rates they can charge to charter tankers in the event that the US and Iran reach a deal to reopen the contested waterway, through which a fifth of global oil supplies typically pass.
Iran’s stranglehold on the strait since the war started in February has delivered a windfall for the industry, with profits surging to $36bn in the first quarter, according to Clarksons, one of the world’s biggest shipping brokers. The previous quarterly record of $26bn was set in 2022.
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