LR Tankers: Freight Squeezes Naphtha Arb

AI Summary

War in the Middle East has disrupted naphtha flows, squeezing the freight economics of the long-range tanker trade and constraining Asia’s naphtha arbitrage. Shipbroker Gibson said the March halt at the Strait of Hormuz interrupted a route that normally supplies more than half of Asia’s imports from the Gulf.

A shift has been underway in the naphtha market as a result of the war in the Middle East. In its latest weekly report, shipbroker Gibson said that “the war in the Middle East has upended Asia’s naphtha market. With the Gulf normally supplying over half of Asia’s imports, the March halt at Hormuz forced ...