The U.S. sanctions on Chinese tanker firms and the increased tensions in Middle Eastern waters have spoiled what many refiners had anticipated could be a bumper Q4 quarter just ahead of the new rules on cleaner shipping fuel taking effect in January 2020. The global shipping industry has seen freight rates soar over the past few weeks as traders and shippers stay away from booking oil tankers owned by Chinese tanker companies that came under U.S. sanctions for dealing with oil from Iran. The cost of chartering supertankers to carry crude oil from the Middle East to Asia has soared and made oil procurement costs so high to the point of eroding refining profits for refiners. Complex refining margins in Singapore plunged to just US$2.91 per barrel at the end of last week, from a high of over US$10 a barrel in mid-September, Bloomberg reports , citing data from […]