Oil tanker freight from US to China surges to $80 million

The cost of chartering an oil tanker on the US-to-China route has reached approximately $80 million, according to Bloomberg. This exceeds the cost of a commercial launch of SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket by $6 million — a comparison that starkly illustrates the scale of disruption in the global seaborne oil transport market.

The rate increase is driven by a global shortage of tanker tonnage, caused by escalating tensions in the Strait of Hormuz — a critical shipping corridor through which a significant portion of global oil supplies passes. Facing regional instability, Middle Eastern oil companies are forced to resort to ship-to-ship transfers, which extend the duration of each voyage by roughly a week and further reduce available fleet capacity.

"There is simply not enough tanker tonnage," Russell Hardy, chief executive of international oil trader Vitol, told Bloomberg. According to TASS, market analysts do not rule out further rate increases if tensions in the region persist.