Oil shipments through the Strait of Hormuz have recovered in recent months, despite repeated Iranian attacks that have increased the risks for tankers transporting cargo out of the Persian Gulf. A relatively obscure South Korean shipping company has played a central role in that recovery.
Sinokor has accounted for roughly half of tanker transits through the strait since the beginning of September, according to Lloyd’s List Intelligence. Tomer Raanan, a senior maritime intelligence analyst at the firm, said the company had made a major contribution to moving oil out of the waterway.
The concentration of so much traffic in one operator’s fleet could also increase shipping costs between the Middle East and other markets. Freight rates were already rising because the conflict has heightened risks across the global oil trade.
Sinokor, led by a father-and-son team little known even in South Korea, began rapidly buying tankers during the two months before the United States and Israel attacked Iran at the end of February. The timing of that expansion has positioned the company, by some measures, as the world’s largest operator of supertankers.
Many tankers are currently occupied transporting oil through the strait, contributing to shortages in other parts of the market. Kristoffer Barth Skeie, an equity analyst at Arctic Securities who specializes in tanker companies, said Sinokor’s growth had given it disproportionate influence over the trade.
Sources: The New York Times Business.