Sinokor Buys 73 VLCCs for $6bn and Becomes the Largest Tanker Operator
MSC took half the company earlier this year; the fleet now stands at 93 VLCCs and 162 tankers
Sinokor Maritime has bought 73 VLCCs for close to $6 billion so far in 2026, taking the South Korean owner's crude fleet to the edge of 100 ships and making it the largest tanker operator in the world by fleet size.
The company now operates 93 VLCCs with a combined carrying capacity above 28.3 million deadweight tonnes, within a tanker fleet of 162 vessels. The outlay on secondhand tonnage this year equals the combined spend of the next eight largest tanker buyers globally.
The purchases are backed by Mediterranean Shipping Company, which took a 50 percent stake in Sinokor earlier this year and now shares control of the business.
The buying sits inside a sale and purchase market that has run hot all year. A total of 428 crude and product tankers changed hands between January and mid-August, against 370 in the whole of the first three quarters of 2025.
The driver behind the market is the Strait of Hormuz. Position data shows a marked change in how vessels move in and out of the Persian Gulf as owners and charterers price the risk of operating there, and demand has concentrated on tonnage that can be redeployed onto alternative trade routes at short notice. That demand has pushed secondhand values to multi-year highs, with VLCC prices at their strongest since 2008.
The freight market is currently absorbing the cost of rerouting and the higher insurance premiums that come with it, and owners are competing hard for capacity even so. Whether the acquisition pace holds will depend on how the situation in the Strait develops. Analysts covering the sector expect prices to stabilise from here rather than accelerate further, while noting that owners with ageing fleets may treat the present level as the moment to renew before any correction.
