The BDTI is a composite freight rate index published daily by the Baltic Exchange, aggregating assessment rates across dirty tanker benchmark routes including TD3C (VLCC Middle East to China) and TD15 (Suezmax West Africa to UK Continent). It is used by oil trading desks to price crude freight into delivered-cost calculations and to gauge tanker market tightness.Source: Baltic Exchange

How high did TD3C freight rates go during the Iran Strait closure in May 2026?

The Baltic Exchange assessed TD3C VLCC freight at WS458.75 on 11 May 2026, implying a TCE of $462,102/day — a gain of 50 WS points week-on-week, driven by war-risk premium from Iran's Strait of Hormuz closure.Source: Baltic Exchange

What is the TC2 tanker route and why is it relevant to European product markets?

TC2 is the Baltic Exchange's benchmark clean tanker route — MR product tanker from Rotterdam to New York. Its rate determines whether it is economical to ship European clean products (gasoline, jet) to the US, directly setting the floor on EBOB-RBOB arbitrage economics.Source: Baltic Exchange

Background

The Baltic Exchange was founded in 1744 in London and operates as an independent shipping information exchange, publishing daily freight rate assessments across dry bulk (Baltic Dry Index, BDI), tanker (BDTI, BCTI), and gas carrier markets. Assessments are submitted daily by a panel of shipbroker members for standard benchmark routes including TD3C (VLCC Middle East Gulf to China), TC2 (clean MR Rotterdam to New York), and TD15 (Suezmax West Africa to UK Continent). The Baltic Exchange was acquired by Singapore Exchange (SGX) in 2016 but retains independent editorial governance over its index methodology.

The last clean TD3C VLCC read the Exchange published before this week's Hormuz re-escalation was a spot TCE near $286,500 a day on 3 July, itself down from $412,888 assessed on 16 June. No post-strike print has yet followed the IRGC vessel strikes of 6-7 July and the CENTCOM strike of 8 July, so the Exchange's own tanker assessments have not yet repriced the renewed risk that has already moved the Brent-Dubai EFS and Russian diesel cracks this week.

That gap sits against the Exchange's earlier peak assessment: TD3C hit WS458.75 on 11 May 2026, implying a TCE of $462,102/day, up 50 WS points week-on-week, as Iran's Strait closure drove VLCC owners to extract a war-risk premium from Gulf-routing crude cargoes. The shadow fleet's rising Russian-flag share, tracked by KSE to 21% of shadow movements in March, simultaneously pushed BDTI and BCTI wider as conventional vessels avoided Russian-origin cargo.

For European oil desks, the Baltic tanker routes are the direct link between crude and product freight costs and refining economics. The TD3C rate determines the landed cost of Gulf crude in Asia relative to European buyers, while TC2 determines whether the clean Atlantic product arbitrage (Rotterdam to New York) is economically viable. With no post-strike TD3C print yet published, that landed-cost read is currently running on a week-old assessment.