Korean shipping company Sinokor reaps huge profits following Iran war

Shipping company Sinokor’s website [SCREEN CAPTURE]

 
Amid severe turmoil in global energy markets caused by the war involving Iran, Korean shipping company Sinokor is reaping huge profits from its investment strategy in very large crude carriers (VLCCs), Bloomberg reported on Saturday.
 
Sinokor had been aggressively securing VLCCs and expanding its fleet even before the war broke out, according to the report. Industry estimates put the number of VLCCs under Sinokor’s control at about 150 as of late February.
 

 
That amounts to roughly 40 percent of the vessels that were neither subject to sanctions nor tied up in other contracts. 
 
The company decided to send at least six empty VLCCs to the Persian Gulf just weeks before the outbreak of war and keep them ready for loading cargo.
 
After Iran closed the Strait of Hormuz following U.S. and Israeli airstrikes on Feb. 28 — meaning that crude exports were blocked — storage facilities across the Middle East quickly neared capacity, and global oil companies began using tankers as floating storage.
 
Tanker charter rates surged in the process. “Now, with exports through the strait choked off and regional storage fast filling up, Sinokor is hiring ships out at eye-popping rates of $500,000 a day to hold oil,” Bloomberg reported, citing brokers.
 

India-Middle East service route [SCREEN CAPTURE]

 
“When the company went on its purchasing spree in January, it bought a series of ships from another owner at an average of $88 million,” Bloomberg continued. “One of those ships is now loading cargo in the Gulf and would have paid for itself in less than six months on a $500,000-a-day deal if those rates were to be sustained.”
 
Crude shipping freight rates also climbed sharply. The cost of transporting crude from the Middle East to China has risen to about $20 a barrel, far above the 2025 average of roughly $2.50, according to shipbrokers.
 
“They’ve had a major impact,” Halvor Ellefsen, a London-based director at Fearnleys Shipbrokers UK, told Bloomberg. “They’ve controlled a big part of the fleet, sharpened competition and ultimately sometimes have been able to name their price.”
 

Locations of Sinokor vessels [SCREEN CAPTURE]

 
Founded in 1989, Sinokor started in container shipping. The company is now led by Chung Tae-soon, a former chairman of the Korea Shipowners’ Association. His son, Chung Ga-hyun, reportedly spearheaded the strategy to secure tankers.
 
Experts say the investment gains were the result of this strategy converging with market conditions.
 
“A good position is a little strategy and a little luck,” said Carl Larry, an oil analyst at Enverus. Sinokor’s big bet on tankers “was quite unusually advantageous.”

This article was originally written in Korean and translated by a bilingual reporter with the help of generative AI tools. It was then edited by a native English-speaking editor. All AI-assisted translations are reviewed and refined by our newsroom.

BY BAE JAE-SUNG [[email protected] ]