Washington Opens Door to Dark-Fleet Tankers as US Box Rates Stall

The Trump administration moved this week to bring sanctioned oil tankers back into lawful trade in an effort to curb soaring freight costs. On the transpacific, container lines began cutting capacity as US-bound rates lost momentum.

Energy Secretary Chris Wright said on Monday that the government is developing an approval process that would let investors buy idle sanctioned tankers, refurbish them and use them to carry only non-sanctioned crude. Speaking at a Citadel Securities event in New York, he put the global dark fleet at about 1,600 vessels and said dozens, or even hundreds, could eventually rejoin legitimate trade. “There is no removing of sanctions,” Wright said.

The plan is Washington’s first detailed attempt to expand tanker supply as the war in Iran and the effective closure of the Strait of Hormuz disrupt crude flows. Analysts doubt how far it will go. Kpler estimates that only 24 of the roughly 160 very large crude carriers under US Treasury sanctions could realistically return to mainstream trade once age and ownership limits are applied.

In containers, the rally in US-bound spot rates is fading. Xeneta data show rates from the Far East to the US East Coast at USD 11,495 per forty-foot container and to the West Coast at USD 8,296, both slightly lower over the past month. Carriers blanked 58,200 twenty-foot units of West Coast capacity and 35,500 of East Coast capacity this week. Xeneta analyst Emily Stausbøll said that suggests lines doubt current rate levels will hold.

The softening comes despite record volumes. The Port of Long Beach handled 997,177 twenty-foot units in September, up 25% from a year earlier, after neighboring Los Angeles also posted its busiest month on record. The National Retail Federation expects the unusually long peak shipping season to wind down.