The week in charts: Bearish vs benign container shipping | Sanctioned tankers exploit Arctic for Russia oil | US-China talks, Panama Canal ‘bottleneck’ on VLGC rates
- Liner profits have been supported by externalities — Covid, then the Red Sea crisis — for five years. No such driver has emerged (yet) for 2026
- At least five sanctioned ‘shadow fleet’ tankers used the Arctic route this summer to deliver Russian oil to China
- US Gulf-Japan VLGC rates at $74,753 per day, up 55% year on year; Middle East Gulf-Japan rates at $71,668 per day, up 62% year on year
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