Unipec completed 51 fewer VLCC spot fixtures in 2023, but that did little to diminish its dominance of the dirty spot charter market.
The trading arm of oil major Sinopec still conducted 881 fixtures last year and carried around 16.5% of total dirty cargoes, according to Poten & Partners.
However, it moved 6.8% less cargo last year — 204.7m tonnes, against the 219.7m tonnes in 2022.
On a global basis, total reported spot cargo volumes were up 3.6%, but the number of fixtures was down by 3.8% or 300, the US broker said.
Coming a distant second to Sinopec was Shell, followed by ExxonMobil, Total and Chevron.
Glencore was among three new entrants in the top 20, coming in at 14th. GS Caltex and Phillips were the other two new entrants at 15th and 20th respectively.
Norway’s Equinor, India’s Reliance and South Korea’s Hyundai all dropped out of the top 20.
While Unipec made fewer VLCC fixtures last year, Brazil’s Petrobras, Shell and GS Caltex increased their activity in this sector.
Petrobras went from 10th in 2022 to fifth last year on the back of 34 more VLCC fixtures as more Brazilian barrels were exported on VLCCs rather than suezmaxes.
Shell was the second-largest spot charterer of VLCCs, overtaking ExxonMobil, while GS Caltex moved into seventh place from 14th in 2022.
In the suezmax segment, France’s Total maintained the number one spot, followed by ExxonMobil.
The biggest gainer was Shell, which moved up seven places to third, while Unipec was up three places to sixth.
Traders Glencore and Trafigura boosted their suezmax spot market activity, pushing them up to eighth and 10th, according to Poten.
The aframax segment was said to have shown significant changes with a relative stable group of charterers. However, overall aframax fixture activity was down in 2023.
Vitol, which recently announced it would be concentrating its shipping activities in Singapore, was the top charterer of aframaxes last year, registering 125 reported fixtures, which was 10 fewer than in 2022, when it was second.
Winners, according to Poten, were Italy’s Eni with 25 additional fixtures and Total with 17 more aframax fixtures compared with a year earlier.
Shell and ExxonMobil were “markedly less active than in 2022”, while Aramco sneaked into the top 10 aframax charters, replacing Unipec.
