ΠThe tanker buy-sell market is experiencing Sharp recovery in the first seven months of 2026 - from January to July 365 vessels changed ownership compared to 239 for the same period last year. This is clear from the analysis of the brokerage house Xclusiv Shirbrokers.
The growth of 53% on an annual basis also covers a more worrying trend - almost half of the deals are concluded with buyers whose identity remains completely secret.
According to Xclusiv data, 171 of the tanker purchases - about 47% of All registered transactions were made by unidentified buyers, a number that barely exceeded 70 similar cases a year earlier. Activity via the Japanese alone accounted for 24% of the total volume of transactions, before the market gradually cooled down during the second quarter, notes the Safetu4Sea portal.
The expansion of anonymous purchases coincides with the expansion of the so-called "shadow fleet" - a group of tankers that transport sanctioned oil from countries such as Russia, Iran and (until recently) Venezuela, leaving it outside Western shipping networks.
The fleet now numbers over 1,300 vessels and controls nearly 20% of the world's oil transportation capacity. This comes after Western sanctions hit Russian oil exports sharply in 2022, with hundreds of aging tankers being taken off the grid in just 18 months.
Ownership is systematically routed through shell companies, and ships often sail under the flags of countries with reduced control and bypassing all tracking systems. Since we are talking about old and fairly depreciated tankers, the risks that are taken when sailing without insurance are justified by the high price of the cargo.
In recent months alone, the European Union has added nearly 190 new vessels to its sanctions list for the Russian "fair fleet", bringing the total number to nearly 350 tankers, and The United States is holding seven tankers with about 7 million barrels of Iranian crude oil between December 2025 and February 2026.
Among buyers with a certain degree of autonomy, South Korean shipowners were the most active, acquiring 58 vessels. The next places are occupied by their Greek colleagues with 47 and Chinese buyers with 37.
Investors from our southern neighbor have retained exactly the same number of purchases as in 2025 - a sign of a more cautious strategy against the background of the general boom in the market.
On the seller side, however, Greece has confirmed its leading position. Greek shipowners sold 70 tankers - compared to 49 a year earlier, which means that Greek interests are behind almost every fifth tanker sale deal worldwide.
Singapore shipowners also significantly increased their sales activity, while growth in China remained significant
Πo individual vessel categories, VLCC/ULCC tankers (the largest - b.p.) dominated the deals with 83 transactions, or almost 23% of the total volume - a decrease from just 31 sales for the same period in 2025.
The main reason for this is the large-scale campaign to acquire new vessels by the alliance Sinocor-MSC, which is estimated to have purchased between 60 and 70 VLCC vessels in a relatively short period, significantly changing the balance in this segment.
The age profile of the ships sold also reveals interesting dynamics. The newest of them are in high demand - sales of vessels up to 5 years old increased from 19 to 36, and deals with vessels 11-15 years old almost doubled, from 48 to 90.
However, older vessels continue to dominate the market. Tankers aged 16-20 years accounted for 157 sales - around 43% of all transactions, compared to 110 for the same period in 2025. If all ships over 16 years old are included, a total of 207 vessels changed hands, accounting for around 57% of the total market activity.
ΠThe profile of these ships is well known - built at the beginning of the new century or earlier, beyond the period in which the big oil companies would have hired them under normal market conditions, and bought from fictitious companies at heavily discounted prices. Ideal candidates for the shadow fleet.