Two vessels linked to subsidiaries of state-owned shipping conglomerate China Cosco Shipping are suspected of having carried Iranian energy cargoes after Washington’s sanctions waiver for China expired on 2 May, according to analytics firm Windward.
The companies, namely Cosco Shipping Tanker (Dalian) Co and Cosco Shipping Tanker (Dalian) Seaman & Ship Management, were put on Washington’s sanctions list on 25 September along with Kunlun Shipping and three other Chinese firms.
While China has remained the top buyer of Iranian crude and LPG, industry observers have been surprised by the Cosco firms’ alleged involvement.
Cosco Shipping Tanker (Dalian) Seaman & Ship Management had been a subsidiary of Cosco Shipping Tanker (Dalian), also known as Cosco Dalian. Earlier this year, Cosco Dalian sold the shipmanagement arm to Cosco Shipping Investment Dalian, directly owned by parent group Cosco Shipping.
Cosco Dalian itself is one of the main shipowning subsidiaries of Cosco Shipping Energy Transportation (CSET), whose shares are listed on the Shanghai and Hong Kong stock exchanges. Cosco Shipping remains the controlling shareholder of CSET.
As China’s national flagship carrier, Cosco Shipping is often under heavy scrutiny and has large exposure to international capital markets. Vessel-tracking databases have shown no direct liftings by Cosco tankers in Iran since May.
“While there is no smoking gun related to Cosco when looking only at the Middle East Gulf, there's definitely one when looking wider,” Windward said in an emailed note.
The company’s analysis suggested a “suspected pattern of sanctions evasions that the Cosco fleet is part of”.
“It is strongly connected with the company Kunlun Shipping. As part of this operation, the Kunlun fleet is loading dark in the Gulf, and then transship[ping] to Cosco tankers to carry the cargo to China, sometimes with more than one transshipment in between.”
Opaque operations
The Israeli data analysis firm said the 45,840-dwt tanker CCPC Voyager (built 2004) had made two ship-to-ship transfers in Malaysia with the 311,189-dwt VLCC CCPC Vanguard (built 1998) and one in China with the 281,501-dwt VLCC Pacific Challenger (built 2001) since June.
With the two VLCCs often involved in dark operations in the Middle East Gulf, Windward said the MR was probably involved in the Iranian crude trade despite being classified as a chemical tanker.
Clarksons has listed Cosco Shipping Tanker (Dalian) Co as the owner of the CCPC Voyager while Equasis has listed the company as its shipmanager. VesselsValue shows the two VLCCs are owned by Kunlun Shipping.
Separately, Windward said the 78,475-cbm Sea Gloria (built 1993) had made three round voyages between the Middle East Gulf and Malaysia, going dark on both ends up until early September.
The VLGC then sailed to China before embarking on a voyage to anchor off Singapore.
Clarksons has listed Cosco Shipping Tanker (Dalian) Seaman & Ship Management as the ship’s technical manager. Equasis shows the ship is owned by Advance Agility, a single-ship entity that shares the same address as Cosco group arms in Hong Kong.
Emails to Cosco firms seeking comment were not returned.
