Crude Oil Tankers - VLCC: Market Size & Forecast 2026

The global Very Large Crude Carrier (VLCC) market sits at approximately USD 12.5 billion in 2025 (base year), representing the largest segment of the ocean-going crude oil tanker complex by deadweight capacity. The market has just completed one of its most powerful freight environments in a decade, with TD3C earnings, the benchmark Persian Gulf to China route, surging past USD 100,000 per day through much of 2025 and peaking above USD 424,000 per day in March 2026 during the Strait of Hormuz closure. That same disruption has triggered a historic orderbook surge, with 262 VLCCs currently on order globally, eclipsing the 2008 peak that subsequently flooded the market. The tension between near-term earnings strength and medium-term supply overhang defines the entire procurement and investment thesis. > **Analyst Take.** The orderbook surge is the story nobody is pricing correctly. We read t

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