‘Astonishing year’ sees VLCC contracting smash through historical records

The first half of 2026 has seen VLCC contracting surge, exceeding previous annual records by a huge margin.

Maritime Strategies International reports 177 VLCCs totalling 54.5m dwt ordered during the first half of 2026, with the VLCC orderbook-to-fleet ratio at around 35% as of June, up from just 2% in 2023.

Even if no further orders had been placed in H2, the H1 2026 figure would still be the highest year for VLCC ordering in history, far exceeding the second highest of 32.6m dwt contracted in 2006.

For the tanker market as a whole, as a result of the surge in large crude carrier ordering, total tanker contracting had already approached 80 Mn Dwt at the end of June, exceeding MSI’s previous full-year assumption.

As the chart illustrates, the previous peak in VLCC contracting was seen in 2006, when 32.6m dwt was ordered, and the orderbook-to-fleet ratio stood at around 38. However, the global VLCC fleet at that time was only around half today’s size.