Oil shipping rates from US to Asia hit three-yr high

HOUSTON/NEW YORK, Oct 02 (Reuters): Freight rates for US crude tankers bound for Asia were bid up to a more than three-year peak this week as US sanctions on a Chinese transport giant cut vessel availability, traders and shipbrokers said.
The United States (US) last week imposed sanctions on two units of China's COSCO for alleged involvement in ferrying crude out of Iran. That action prompted US Gulf Coast exporters to hold back chartering COSCO-linked vessels, traders and shipbrokers said.
One of the units - COSCO Shipping Tanker (Dalian) - owns and manages at least 36 tankers for crude and refined products, including 18 very large crude carriers (VLCCs), according to shipping sources and Refinitiv data.
This week, suggested rates for VLCCs from the US Gulf Coast to China vaulted to $9.8 million, up from $6.2 million in early September, according to ship broker McQuilling Services. VLCCs carry around 2.0 million barrels each.
To attract a ship into the Atlantic market, it's going to cost about $10 million for US Gulf Coast shipments bound for China or South Korea, said another US shipbroker who brokers about 20 vessels per month.
Friday's highest quote was at $9.5 million for charterer Atlantic Trading & Marketing, a unit of Total SA, to book a VLCC from the US Gulf Coast to China, shipbrokers said. The deal did not go through, the brokers said, and Atlantic Trading declined to comment.
No transactions for supertankers from the US Gulf Coast to Asia have been executed this week, shipbrokers said.
Another report from London adds: Oil prices were mixed on Wednesday as Brent crude extended losses partly in response to weak global stock markets, but US crude rose slightly after industry data showed an unexpected fall in inventories in the United States.
Brent crude futures, an international benchmark for oil prices, were down 24 cents at $58.65 a barrel by 0932 GMT. US West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures rose 6 cents to $53.68 a barrel. Front-month WTI prices settled down for a sixth straight session on Tuesday, their longest losing streak this year, after US manufacturing activity dropped to a 10-year low as US-China trade tensions weighed on exports.
But prices found some support from American Petroleum Institute (API) data which showed US crude stocks fell last week by 5.9 million barrels, against expectations for an increase of 1.6 million barrels.