TD3C is the Baltic Exchange's benchmark route for 270,000-tonne VLCCs running from Ras Tanura in Saudi Arabia to Ningbo in China. It is quoted in Worldscale points and is the global standard for pricing supertanker spot freight.

Why are VLCC freight rates so high in May 2026?

TD3C hit WS458.75 on 11 May 2026 (TCE $462,102/day), driven by Hormuz transit disruption diverting vessels to longer routes, a Brent-Dubai EFS above $6/BBL incentivising Atlantic-to-Asia crude flows, and the Baltic Dirty Tanker Index reaching an all-time high.Source: Lowdown european-oil-markets

How is TD3C converted from Worldscale to dollars?

TD3C Worldscale points are converted to a Time Charter Equivalent (TCE) in dollars per day, reflecting the net daily earnings of the vessel after voyage costs. At WS458.75 on 11 May 2026, the TCE was $462,102/day.Source: Lowdown european-oil-markets

Background

TD3C is the Baltic Exchange's benchmark dirty tanker route for very large crude carriers (VLCCs): a 270,000 tonne voyage from Ras Tanura in Saudi Arabia to Ningbo in China, quoted in Worldscale points. It is read alongside the Brent-Dubai EFS and the Baltic Dirty Tanker Index as a correlated system: the EFS is the upstream demand signal, TD3C is the freight expression, and BDTI is the aggregate dirty tanker read.

The last clean TD3C read before this week's Hormuz re-escalation was a spot TCE near $286,500 a day on 3 July, down from the $412,888 assessed on 16 June. No post-strike print has yet published following the IRGC vessel strikes of 6-7 July and the CENTCOM strike of 8 July, so the freight market has not, as of this update, repriced the renewed risk that has already moved the Brent-Dubai EFS and Russian diesel cracks. That gap continues the freight desk's central puzzle this quarter: the instrument treated as the cleanest read on physical Gulf risk is the one still declining to confirm it.

The softening from May's WS458.75 peak ($462,102/day TCE, 11 May) tracked the same demand collapse that compressed the EFS: Chinese seaborne crude imports fell to 6.78 million barrels a day in May, a near-decade low, while Japan's April imports crashed 66%. Even so, the 4Q26 forward freight agreement held near $181,163/day through 22 June, roughly twice the US Gulf-China equivalent, and did not move when the US-Iran MOU was signed on 18 June or when Iran re-closed the Strait on 20 June.

TD3C also functions as a shadow-fleet indicator. Hull-by-hull OFAC designations of Iran-linked vessels remove compliant options and create a structural freight floor under demand-driven weakness. The FFA premium signals that participants expect the MEG corridor to stay structurally more expensive than The Atlantic basin through the rest of 2026, regardless of the diplomatic tenor on Hormuz, a view the 3 July pre-strike read and the absence of a post-strike print have so FAR done nothing to disturb.