This story is based on interviews with a dozen shipping brokers, vessel owners and executives, most of whom asked not to be identified discussing private information. Many of Sinokor\u2019s purchases and charters\u00a0have also been disclosed in industry broker reports. Several shipowners added that the venture is still showing interest in acquiring more vessels.\u00a0<\/p>\n
A representative for MSC declined to comment. Sinokor did not respond to multiple emails and phone calls seeking comment.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The move in itself is eye-grabbing, even by the standards of the opaque world of shipping. Many of the tankers carrying oil around the globe tend to be tied up on long-term leases or regular routes, and a growing share have been hit by sanctions over the illicit trade of Russian and Iranian oil, leaving fewer and fewer vessels available for hire at a time when the global oil trade is surging.<\/p>\n
Sinokor\u2019s aggressive buying has spooked the market, traders say, in turn dramatically driving up the cost of freight as nervous charterers rush to book space\u00a0in case prices rise further in the future due to the concentrated ownership. Crude-tanker earnings have had the strongest start to a year in more than three decades, according to Clarkson Research Services Ltd., a unit of the world\u2019s largest shipbroker, while traders say that prices for physical oil in some regions are being pushed lower by the turmoil in the shipping market.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cYou have one party or group of people who are working together who effectively control around a third of the available or traded tanker VLCC fleet out there,\u201d Ole Hjertaker, CEO of shipping firm SFL Corp.\u00a0said on a call with analysts last week, without naming the parties.<\/p>\n
The tanker market is a niche but vital cog within the global oil trade. It has long been dominated by owners from a handful of nations with significant maritime history like Greece and Norway, as well as countries with major oil interests like Saudi Arabia and China.\u00a0<\/p>\n
While Sinokor is a lesser-known name with its roots in container shipping, the group has in the past gone on chartering sprees that have tightened the market. However, at least one person involved in the market said that the current flurry of deals far outpaces any of its previous runs.\u00a0<\/p>\n
For Aponte, the purchases only serve to expand the reach of a massive global empire. The billionaire last year emerged as a key investor in a consortium looking to acquire a\u00a0substantial share\u00a0in two ports along the Panama Canal. In 2022, after scooping up hundreds of ships, MSC\u00a0overtook\u00a0Maersk<\/a> as the world\u2019s largest container line, a title the Danish company had held for decades.\u00a0<\/p>\n Maersk ranks No. 7 on the TT Top 50 global freight list.<\/p>\n The move to amass a large share of the world\u2019s available tankers \u2014 roughly 15% of the total non-sanctioned fleet, and around a quarter to a third of the VLCCs that aren\u2019t already locked up \u2014 would provide greater influence over pricing if the ships aren\u2019t quickly made available for hire.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u2018Fundamental Shift\u2019<\/p>\n Demand for non-sanctioned tankers has soared in recent months as a flood of supplies hits global oil markets, at the same time that a chunk of the fleet is subject to Western sanctions. Together the two have boosted the amount of ships being used at any given time, spurring higher earnings and the risk of further spikes.<\/p>\n Gianluigi Aponte’s sprawling shipping empire includes\u00a0MSC. (Geert Vanden Wijngaert\/Bloomberg News)<\/p>\n The extent of the venture\u2019s fleet is difficult to measure because it includes a mix of vessels that have been purchased and hired, as well as ones that Sinokor already controlled. Some of the people involved in the market estimate that the group had fewer than 120 ships.\u00a0<\/p>\n But on a recent call with investors, Svein Moxnes Harfjeld, chief executive of tanker company DHT Holdings Inc. referred to a \u201cfundamental shift\u201d in global fleet ownership consolidation, without naming the parties involved.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cWe can say with confidence that this is taking place and already making an impact, both on freight rates in the spot market, customer demand for time charters, and values of second-hand VLCCs,\u201d he said. \u201cThis consolidation is shifting the pricing dynamics and is putting pressure on timely availability of ships.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Benchmark earnings for VLCCs, which can haul 2 million barrels of oil, are currently higher than $120,000 a day, up more than fourfold over the last month in part because of the Sinokor deals, people involved in the market said. Hiring one of the ships for three years costs just over $50,000 a day, Clarkson data shows, the most since 2008.<\/p>\n Sinokor\u2019s purchases have largely been focused on vessels that are 10 years and older, and the resale price for older supertankers has been creeping up in recent weeks.\u00a0<\/p>\n The rise in the outright value of ships can also bolster long-term hire prices, people involved in the market said. Higher ship values offer unrealized gains if the vessels aren\u2019t sold, and so one way of shipowners realizing some of the profit from an upswing in prices is through higher chartering costs for their ships.<\/p>\n Boom and Bust<\/p>\n Still, the shipping industry is notoriously boom and bust because periods of high earnings are usually met with large periods of vessel ordering that flood the market with new ships years down the line. Higher rates in recent weeks have already started to boost the number of tanker orders, which as a percentage of the current fleet is now the highest in a decade, Clarkson Research data shows.\u00a0<\/p>\n Although the precise details of the arrangement between Sinokor and Aponte are unclear, there was a pre-existing commercial relationship. Late last year, Sinokor sold a series of container ships to Aponte\u2019s MSC, according to data from Clarkson Research.<\/p>\n
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