Two Chinese shipping giants have stopped sending oil tankers through the Strait of Hormuz and Bab Al-Mandeb and are instead collecting oil cargoes outside the Gulf, Reuters reported, citing three industry executives, tanker trackers and a ship broker.
State-controlled COSCO Shipping Energy Transportation (600026.SS), opens new tab and China Merchants Energy Shipping (CMES) (601872.SS), opens new tab have kept their tankers out of the Strait of Hormuz and Bab al-Mandeb since late July, according to tanker tracker Vortexa and a ship broker, with security concerns curbing oil shipments to the world’s largest importer.
The decision by the two shippers to avoid both chokepoints followed communications with central authorities, Reuters cited a state oil trading executive and two Chinese shipping executives with direct knowledge of the matter. These sources and others declined to be named due to company policy.
CMES told investors in late July that its vessels would not enter the Strait of Hormuz for the time being. It added that other shippers have avoided Bab Al-Mandeb, without mentioning its own policy for the narrow passage at the southern end of the Red Sea, a public filing showed.
The two shippers, which together control more than 100 very large crude carriers (VLCCs) capable of carrying 2 million barrels of oil apiece, handled roughly half of China’s crude imports from the Middle East before the US-Israeli war on Iran began in late February, according to shipping sources.
Excluding oil from Iran, China’s crude imports from the Middle East, shipped mostly in VLCCs, averaged 4.9 million barrels per day last year according to Chinese customs data. The two state shippers do not transport Iranian oil due to sanctions, according to traders and analysts.
Routes Diverted
An executive at one of the state shippers said supertanker utilization has dropped since the war on Iran started, with many vessels diverted to longer routes to the Atlantic and the Americas.
“The tankers remain engaged, but (they are) sailing longer voyages, experiencing longer waiting time amid greater uncertainty,” the executive said.
Data from ship-tracker Kpler showed a surge in ship-to-ship transfers involving China- and Hong Kong-owned vessels in the Gulf of Oman, with volumes exceeding 600,000 barrels per day (bpd) in June and July.
There was no such activity in April and May and less than 30,000 bpd in each of the first two months of 2026.
“They are avoiding the two straits, but sending vessels to the new STS (ship-to-ship) points outside the Gulf – low risk and good profits,” said a second Chinese shipping executive, referring to waters off Omani ports and the United Arab Emirates’ Fujairah where in recent months most Gulf crude exports have been shipped and transferred to vessels bound for Asian buyers.
Source: Reuters (edited by Al-Manar)