The Baltic Exchange, London's freight benchmark publisher, reported Med Aframax TD19 (the Ceyhan-Lavera route) up 50 points to WS228, worth $67,100/day, in the week to 6 June 1. WS is the Worldscale freight index; the dollar figure is the time-Charter-equivalent earnings a shipowner nets. Suezmax CPC/Augusta reached WS218 ($121,200/day) as desks bid Kazakh CPC Blend. The VLCC Gulf-China route TD3C held flat at WS402.5, and the product route MR TC2 (ARA to US Atlantic coast) fell to $2,400/day, the weakest since November 2024.
A Gulf-wide panic lifts every class, especially the very large crude carriers that haul the longest Gulf legs. Here the long-haul VLCC leg held at WS402.5 while the Mediterranean Aframax and Suezmax bids lit up. That divergence reads as a sourcing scramble for specific grades reaching Med refineries, not a blanket risk premium on Gulf shipping.
The grade slate explains the split. Med refiners chasing the medium sour barrels lost to the Iran and Russia squeeze are pulling crude through Ceyhan and CPC, which bids the tanker classes that serve those routes. In early May the same instruments told a different story, with TD3C near WS458 when the whole Gulf was the trade . Now the curve has rotated: same routes, same desks, a different supply map underneath.
