China’s State Tanker Fleets Have Stopped Crossing Hormuz and Bab al-Mandab

China's two largest state-owned tanker fleets have stopped crossing the Strait of Hormuz and the Bab al-Mandab, pulling more than 100 VLCCs off routes that once carried about half of China's Middle East oil.

COSCO Shipping Energy Transportation and China Merchants Energy Shipping, known as CMES, received instructions from central authorities in Beijing in late July and halted transits through both chokepoints, Iran International and IranWire reported on August 18. Each VLCC carries roughly 2 million barrels.

The companies are now loading at Fujairah in the UAE and at ports in Oman, bypassing the two straits entirely. About 24 VLCCs are scheduled for outside-Gulf loadings between August and mid-September. Tanker-to-tanker transfers in the Gulf of Oman ran above 600,000 barrels per day in June and July as the rerouting took hold.

Before the halt, roughly half of China's crude imports from the Middle East moved through Hormuz and Bab al-Mandab. That supply now travels a longer path.