Topic
Freight rates
Every Vessel Hunter story on Freight rates: 30 stories, from 9 July 2026 to 7 October 2026. Newest: "Lila Global sells 20-year-old VLCC Vadin for $117m, nearly double its price". Each story links to the ships and ports it names, so a name in the text opens the record behind it.
Lila Global sells 20-year-old VLCC Vadin for $117m, nearly double its price
Lila Global has sold the 2006-built VLCC Vadin, ex-Kasagisan, for $117m, months after buying her from Mitsui OSK Lines for $60.5m.
Onex DMCC linked to five VLCC purchases as supertanker values climb
Dubai trading house Onex DMCC is now linked to at least five VLCC purchases, from the record $200m Pinios to the 26-year-old Dennie, as the benchmark Gulf-China rate passed $1m a day.
VLCC Freight Adds $26 a Barrel and Starts to Shrink US Gulf-Asia Crude
The Middle East Gulf-China VLCC benchmark reached $1.2125m a day on 17 September, ten times its pre-conflict level, and freight now adds roughly $26 to every barrel moved from the US Gulf to Asia.
Asian Port Congestion Passes Its Pandemic Peak at 4.3M TEU
Container capacity stuck at Asian ports has reached 4.3m teu, above the pandemic peak, with Colombo turnarounds at six days and about 6.6 percent of the global fleet unavailable for normal service.
Maersk Overtakes COSCO to Lead the Intra-Asia Container Trade
Maersk has passed COSCO as the largest operator in the intra-Asia container trade with more than 340,000 teu deployed, adding around 34,000 teu year-on-year.
Bulk Carriers Are Spending Almost 20% Longer at Sea Than They Did in 2020
Laden bulk carrier voyages averaged 22.42 days in June, 19.1% longer than in January 2020, while laden speeds slipped to 10.67 knots, quietly removing effective capacity from a rising fleet.
Benchmark VLCC Rate Passes $1m a Day and Ten-Year-Old Ships Outprice Newbuildings
The Baltic Exchange TD3C benchmark has pushed through the equivalent of $1m a day for the first time, and a ten-year-old VLCC is now worth more than a newbuilding.
SFL Extends Six 15,400 TEU Ships to Hapag-Lloyd and Adds $750m of Backlog
SFL has extended charters on six 15,400 TEU container ships to Hapag-Lloyd by seven years, adding about $750m to a fixed-rate backlog that now stands near $4.6bn.
Gulf Crude Exports Pass 10m Barrels a Day on Facilitated Hormuz Transits
Traffic through the Strait of Hormuz is running at about 20% of its pre-conflict norm, yet Gulf crude exports have passed 10m barrels a day and VLCC rates have reached a record.
Prompt VLCC Tonnage Now Outprices the Newbuilding Market
Frontline has paid out a special dividend on the sale of two VLCCs at $135m each, while the sale-and-purchase market discusses $200m for a ship available immediately.
Maersk Pushes $250 West Med Surcharge Back to 7 October
Maersk has moved the start of a $250 per container peak-season surcharge from the West Mediterranean to the US and Canada from 5 October to 7 October 2026.
COSCO Shipping Holdings' First-Half Profit Falls 34% on Thinner Box Margins
COSCO Shipping Holdings carried 8% more boxes in the first half of 2026 and earned a third less doing it, as operating profit per TEU fell about 30% to $139 and the margin narrowed to 12.5%.
Espino de Marotta Takes Charge of a Panama Canal Running Short of Water
Ilya Espino de Marotta has taken office for a seven-year term at the Panama Canal, with rainfall 34% below average and daily transit capacity falling to 32 ships from 15 September.
ZIM Returns to Quarterly Profit With $64m as the First Half Still Shows a Loss
ZIM posted net income of $64m for the second quarter on revenue of $1.78bn, but the carrier still recorded a $22m net loss across the first half as average freight rates fell to $1,455 per teu.
Urals Crude Returns to VLCCs for Asia as Freight Costs Climb
Reduced Hormuz traffic and eased Venezuela measures have freed up part of the shadow VLCC fleet, opening the trade again.
China to Middle East box rates pass $10,000 as September pressures build
Quotes for 40-foot containers on China to Middle East lanes have surpassed $10,000, up from around $7,000 weeks earlier, as conflict risk and congestion tighten capacity.
CMA CGM Narrows $2,000 South America Surcharge to Contract Cargo
CMA CGM will keep a $2,000 peak season surcharge on dry containers from India's west coast, Pakistan and Sri Lanka to South America's east coast, but limit it to long-term contracts from September.
Maersk Approaches Its Fleet Limits as Utilisation Hits 96%
Maersk chief executive Vincent Clerc says demand resilience has pushed vessel utilisation to 96% and second-quarter ocean volumes up 4.1%, forcing a reassessment of fleet expansion.
MSC Files New Far East-Africa Rates for September as Demand Firms
MSC has filed new freight-all-kinds rates on Far East-Sub-Saharan Africa and Indian Ocean trades for 1-14 September, ranging up to $8,000 per 40-foot container to Somalia.
A 23-Year-Old VLCC Changes Hands at $57m as Vintage Tanker Values Surge
The 2003-built, 300,000 dwt VLCC Hellstugutinden has been sold for a reported $57m, an unusual valuation for a tanker entering its twenty-fourth year.
Baltic Dry Index Snaps Two-Session Slide as Capesize Earnings Climb
The Baltic Exchange's main dry bulk index rose 15 points to 2,791 as capesize gains outweighed a weakening panamax market and softer iron ore futures.
Taiwanese Line Nearly Doubles Quarterly Profit As Margins Recover
A Taiwanese container line has almost doubled its attributable second-quarter profit from the preceding three months, reaching 16.03 billion New Taiwan dollars, equivalent to about 499 million United States dollars.
Korean Container Line Holds A Ten Percent Operating Margin
A South Korean container carrier has reported first-half revenue of 6.121 trillion won with an operating profit of 623 billion won and net profit of 765 billion won, giving an operating margin of 10.2 per cent for the six months.
Freight For A Single Gulf Voyage Reaches Twenty-Five Million Dollars
A single voyage carrying about two million barrels of crude out of the Gulf has been fixed at a freight level implying a bill of roughly twenty-three to twenty-five million dollars, against something closer to two million dollars for
Freight For A Single Gulf Voyage Reaches Twenty-Five Million Dollars
A single voyage carrying about two million barrels of crude out of the Gulf has been fixed at a freight level implying a bill of roughly twenty-three to twenty-five million dollars, against something closer to two million dollars for
Maersk goes from red to black
A.P. Moller-Maersk has sharply upgraded its guidance, now expecting an underlying operating profit of $2bn to $4bn this year, the clearest sign yet that 2026 is shaping up as another profitable year for container shipping.
Container spot rates fall for a third week as front-loading ends
Global container spot rates declined for a third consecutive week, with weakening demand and the end of the front-loading surge weighing on the major east-west trades.
Hapag-Lloyd to raise North Europe-US rates by up to $800 from August
Hapag-Lloyd will raise freight rates on shipments from Northern Europe to the United States by up to $800 per box from August.
Drewry container index jumps 9% on transpacific and Asia-Europe gains
Drewry's World Container Index rose 9% to $4,530 per 40ft box as transpacific and Asia-Europe rates jumped on tight capacity.
Shippers may have overpaid fuel surcharges on transpacific route
Shippers on the Far East to US West Coast route may have paid up to $475 per teu more than actual fuel costs in April and May, according to new analysis.
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