The US administration’s decision to sanction two subsidiaries of China COSCO Shipping Energy, alongside announcements by global traders including Exxon and Unipec that they are banning the use of vessels linked to oil flows from Venezuela have effectively taken close to 300 of the global tanker fleet offline. In addition, longer sailing times from the US to Asia tie vessels in for longer, while ships are entering dockyards for retrofits ahead of the new maritime rules that come into effect on 1 January 2020. In short, a perfect storm seems to have hit the shipping industry. Source: OIES