A growing fleet of laden crude carriers is gathering off the ports of Qingdao and Rizhao in Shandong province waiting to discharge.

At least 20 tankers from aframax to VLCC, 16 years old or more, have taken up residence there, several for periods up to two months.

The elderly ships constitute a significant fraction of what some tanker owners have called the “rogue fleet” of cast-off vessels.

Mainstream tanker owners such as Frontline have called for the scrapping of these ships and accused their owners of profiting from internationally sanctioned trades and creating an environmental and commercial threat.

The queue is a development some observers connect to the Chinese government’s move in January to restrict crude imports for private refineries including the “teapot refineries”, which are mainly centred in Shandong.

Most of the waiting ships are owned by little-known companies based in Hong Kong or the Middle East Gulf, and some by companies whose names are unknown.

But up to a third are owned by or associated with Koban Shipping.

Dubai-based Koban made headlines in 2020 as the buyer of a fleet of vessels disposed of by Norwegian tanker owner ADS Crude Carriers.

Koban marine director Captain Andrey Moiseev told TradeWinds that the company is only technical manager for the ships, with no commercial exposure to the delays.

“It is only a normal operational matter on a basis of demand,” he said. “I have no idea of the reason.”

Moiseev added that he did not know who owned the ships.

The long waits at the Chinese anchorages are not the result of any apparent port congestion, as other vessels call and proceed to berth at Qingdao or Rizhao after a normal wait. Nor is it a storage project in the ordinary sense, because the vessels seem to store only the cargo they arrive with.

Several of the vessels are known to participate in the Venezuelan trade, but many of the ships loaded by ship-to-ship transfer so the origin of their cargoes is hard to pin down.

One of the long-term residents at the Shandong anchorages — the 299,200-dwt Aztec (built 2002) — spends a significant amount of time in Caribbean waters, not always with its AIS transponder switched on.

But the ship has been waiting off Qingdao since New Year’s Eve with oil that was apparently loaded at Nigeria’s Bonny offshore oilfield. The ship is a former ADS vessel that passed through the hands of buyer Koban but reference sources now credit it to an unknown owner.

One ship has been spared from the scrapper’s torch to reappear among the veterans idling in Shandong waters.

Spared from the torch

The 105,900-dwt Winsome (built 2000) has belonged to three different United Arab Emirates-based owners since Zodiac Maritime sold it in 2020.

Some databases list the Winsome as a dead ship after a sale last year for scrap. But the Winsome’s cash buyer apparently found the aframax worth saving. Like the Aztec, the Winsome arrived off Qingdao before the new year and is still waiting.

The longest wait to discharge is that of the 306,300-dwt Carina V (built 2003). Although the former Maran Tankers ship has not been at the North Chinese anchorage as long as some of its neighbours, AIS position and draught records show it has been carrying the same cargo since early October 2021.

It loaded ship-to-ship east of Singapore and waited there for some three months before making for Qingdao, where it has waited since 21 January.

Whoever is paying the hire may not be worried very much about the cost. Thanks to the rising price of oil, the cargo of a ship such as the Carina V would have gained something like $40m in value between early October to mid-February, although those gains have slipped since then to the range of a mere $30m.

Some of the movement off Qingdao and Rizhao looks trader-driven rather than end user-driven, like that of Imza Marine’s 159,200-dwt Bear Mizar (built 2002).

The vessel hung around laden off Qingdao and Rizhao all October and November, but then left and discharged at Tianjin, and returned to the Malacca Strait for another ship-to-ship load and came back to wait again.

Likewise, Salmar Shipping’s 159,400-dwt Okeanos (built 2003) — a former KG (limited partnership) Jebsen ship — arrived off Rizhao in early November and did not discharge and depart until 19 February. But in that period, it made side trips to Busan and Ningbo, without any change of draught in its AIS reports.

Some crude carriers at Qingdao and Rizhao anchorages

Ship:

Days present:

Owner:

159,400-dwt Okeanos (built 2003)

2 Nov — 19 Feb*

Salmar Shipping

105,900-dwt Winsome (built 2000)

29 Dec — now

Lynx Maritime

299,200-dwt Aztec (built 2002)

31 Dec — now

unknown owner, ex Koban Shipping

299,200-dwt Boreas (built 2002)

6 Jan — 15 Feb

Koban Shipping

299,200-dwt Arzoyi (built 2002)

10 Jan — now

Koban Shipping

281,400-dwt Anthea (built 2005)

14 Jan — now

Drini Shipping

159,200-dwt Bear Mizar (built 2002)

17 Jan — now

Imza Marine

107,100-dwt Hebe (built 2002)

19 Jan — now

Koban Shipping

306,300-dwt Carina V (built 2003)

21 Jan — now**

Impala Shipping

106,600-dwt Colossus (built 1999)

26 Jan — now

unknown owner

150,700-dwt Tulip (built 2000)

28 Jan — now***

Shinyuan Ship Mgmt

106,500-dwt Bradley (built 1999)

29 Jan — now

Global Tech Marine

105,700-dwt Simba (built 2002)

1 Feb — now

Vanguard Maritime

104,900-dwt Elsa (built 2003)

4 Feb — now

Delta Lines (HK)

318,500-dwt Neofit (built 2002)

7 Feb — now

unknown owner (HK)

309,100-dwt Hecate (built 2002)

8 Feb — now

Koban Shipping

105,500-dwt Hestia (built 1999)

11 Feb — now

Koban Shipping

165,300-dwt Azul (built 2003)

14 Feb — now

Monumont Ship Mgmt

105,200-dwt Panda (built 2004)

16 Feb — now

Sao Viet Petrol Transportation

106,500-dwt Willowy (built 2003)

20 Feb — now

Hellenic Tankers

160,000-dwt Cecilia A (built 2003)

21 Feb — now

Virosa Shipping

159,800-dwt Metis (built 2001)

22 Feb — now

Koban Shipping

* The Okeanos interrupted a three-and-a-half month stay off Rizhao with side trips to Busan and Ningbo, but returned to the anchorage without recording any change of draft.

** The Carina V loaded off Bandar Penawar in early October and waited there for three months before proceeding to Qingdao.

*** The Tulip partially unloaded at Qingdao and proceeded to anchorage.

Source: VesselsValue