Who are the tanker industry’s leading charterers?

The beginning of the month saw publication of one of the most eagerly anticipated lists in the tanker calendar ꟷ the table of top dirty spot charterers produced annually by the always excellent Tanker Research & Consulting department at Poten & Partners.

There were only minor changes in the rankings of the top dirty spot charterers in 2016 as compared to 2015. But what is undeniable is the growing dominance of China and India as crude oil importers, since five of the top seven VLCC charterers are either Chinese or Indian.

In the VLCC segment, China’s Unipec notched up 524 reported fixtures in 2016; the same volume as the next five largest VLCC charterers combined. In the overall rankings Indian Oil Company moved up one place, but bucking the general trend Petrochina moved down two spots.

The rankings also reveal that traders are most active in the Aframax segment. Vitol is the undisputed number one, followed by Glencore in second place (up from fifth in 2015), while Trafigura moved up from ninth in last years’ ranking to fifth in the current list.

Top dirty charterers 2016