• Newbuild VLCC Elandra Kilimanjaro has loaded diesel on its maiden voyage, Vortexa data show – the first newbuild VLCC to do so this year.

• The VLCC received around 90,000t of diesel via ship-to-ship (STS) transfer this week from LR2 Torm Herdis, offshore Tanjung Pelepas in Malaysia. 
• The origin of the diesel on board can be traced back to Malaysia’s Tanjung Langsat and Singapore’s Universal Terminal. On 27 February, the VLCC was seen berthed at Malaysia’s Pengerang’s Deepwater Terminal, which also supplied diesel onto newbuild VLCCs on their maiden voyages last year.
• China’s Unipec chartered Elandra Kilimanjaro, according to market participants. This ties with shipping fixtures showing a booking for the Unipec-chartered Torm Herdis to load a 90,000t ULSD cargo from Singapore for Europe.
• Newbuild VLCCs that loaded diesel via STS in Singapore/Malaysia last year, headed west to discharge into northwest Europe and West Africa. But diesel margins in northwest Europe have fallen to multi-year lows this month amid weak regional demand. 
• Meanwhile, Chinese diesel exports so far in February averaged around 550,000 b/d, up from 490,000 b/d for total January exports – the highest monthly total seen by Vortexa since March 2019. 
• Since October last year, newbuild VLCCs on maiden voyages were observed only loading crude, which had represented a break from the more active trend of loading diesel during Q1-Q3 2019.

Interested in a more detailed view of these flows?

{{cta(‘bed45aa2-0068-4057-933e-3fac48417da3′,’justifycenter’)}}