Freight
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Oil, gas and dry cargoes are being shipped all over the world every day. With seaborne transportation comes exposure to shipping costs. Be it via direct cost or through the prices of feedstocks or finished products, a freight factor is always there. Highly sensitive to market shifts, geopolitics and regulations, freight is a complex and volatile part of every trade.
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Argus Freight consists of three dedicated services, covering trade flows for tankers, dry bulk and gas markets. Each service provides daily freight indexes, industry-specific news, market analysis and exclusive content. This enables you to connect the dots between commodity prices and shipping costs, giving you a complete view of the supply chain.
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Iran says war with US could spread to Indian Ocean
Iran says war with US could spread to Indian Ocean
Dubai, 24 September (Argus) — A new round of US attacks on Iran could see the conflict expand as far as the Indian Ocean, a senior military adviser to Iran's supreme leader warned on Thursday, amid renewed threats by US president Donald Trump to "annihilate" the country if diplomacy fails. "Our armed forces are wisely planning for multiple scenarios," said Major General Yahya Safavi, including a new round of US or Israeli attacks on Iranian territory. "So far, the war has spread from the [Mideast] Gulf and strait of Hormuz to the Red Sea and Bab el-Mandeb," Safavi said. "If there is a new phase, our response could expand [the conflict] even further. It could extend to the Indian Ocean, and perhaps other areas." He claimed Iranian intelligence has full visibility of US military movements in the region, spanning from the Mediterranean Sea to the Red Sea and Indian Ocean. Safavi's comments came less than two days after Trump issued a fresh threat against Iran's leadership while in New York for the UN General Assembly. "I have a big decision to make," Trump said. "Will a deal be made with Iran... or do I annihilate the Islamic Republic, and do it quickly, never giving them a chance to kill and destroy people and countries again." The rhetoric comes despite renewed attempts by the two sides to restart negotiations aimed at ending the almost seven-month war, reopening the strait of Hormuz to commercial shipping, and securing a deal on Iran's nuclear programme. Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner and special envoy Steve Witkoff met indirectly with Iran's foreign minister Abbas Araghchi through a Qatari mediator in New York on Tuesday. Iranian foreign ministry spokesman Esmail Baqaei said Tehran had made clear its conditions for a return to diplomacy in its latest exchanges with Washington. These included "an end to US aggression", the lifting of the US naval blockade and sanctions on Iran, the release of Iranian frozen funds, and agreement on a framework for safe passage through the strait of Hormuz, to be determined by its two coastal states, Iran and Oman. Witkoff separately said he hoped the meeting would prove "constructive and promising". By Nader Itayim Send comments and request more information at feedback@argusmedia.com Copyright © 2026. Argus Media group . All rights reserved.
High costs belie US claim of opening Hormuz
High costs belie US claim of opening Hormuz
New York, 22 September (Argus) — President Donald Trump's administration has become increasingly confident it has eroded Iran's ability to constrict energy flows through the strait of Hormuz, but the high price of those efforts — both economically and militarily — is calling into question its long-term viability. "We now have more oil flowing through the strait than at any point by far since the conflict began," Trump told a group of Mideast Gulf diplomats assembled in New York on Tuesday to hear his vision for bringing the conflict with Iran to a swift conclusion. But Trump also told the group that progress on resolving the conflict can wait until after the 3 November US midterm elections, meaning more months of turmoil in what had been promised to be a short conflict. While crude prices have fallen this week, refined products prices — particularly diesel — are reaching record highs in many markets around the globe. The high costs to consumers has some countries considering more subsidies, and has even spurred the US administration to consider a ban on diesel exports . The US military is spending at least $3bn a month at the current rate of hostilities with Iran, the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office estimated last week. Most of the US efforts are going into enforcing a blockade on Iranian ports and extending protection to ships passing through the strait on the southern route near the coast of Oman. "The costs of sustaining US active defense of a southern export route are high, but many of those costs are obscured and shifted to the future," Joshua Tallis, research program director at the Center for Naval Analyses, told Argus on Tuesday. "Delayed maintenance, extended operating hours for ships and aircraft, higher use of reservists — these are all bills that will incur real costs for the military." But the US does not need to lift oil exports through Hormuz to pre-war levels to be able to claim success, said retired General David Petraeus, a former CIA director, at the Concordia Summit in New York on Tuesday. The US would only need to ramp up regional exports to around 16mn-17mn b/d — about 80pc of pre-war levels —due to demand destruction and alternative sources of crude such as the US and Venezuela, he said. The US' ability to prevail over Iran "... depends on whether or not we can facilitate the supply of crude out of the strait and the other bypasses to get the crude market back in balance," Petraeus said. US officials have in recent weeks been emphasizing the need to reduce reliance on Hormuz for energy exports, an idea challenged by countries in the Mideast Gulf, including Qatar . But following attacks that shut down the East-West pipeline, restricting exports from the Red Sea, Saudi Aramco is now expected to send at least 56mn bl of crude through the strait of Hormuz during September and October, increasing reliance on the waterway despite heightened security concerns. But even if more crude flows through the strait, the costs will remain high. The ongoing security risks and a limited pool of vessels available to transit Hormuz have pushed the rate for a very large crude carrier to move Middle Eastern crude through Hormuz to Asia to $34.31/bl on 18 September, its highest level since Argus began assessing the route in November 2016. By Charlotte Bawol Send comments and request more information at feedback@argusmedia.com Copyright © 2026. Argus Media group . All rights reserved.
US-Iran deal hard to come by: Qatar
US-Iran deal hard to come by: Qatar
Washington, 21 September (Argus) — Qatar is working to help secure a short-term agreement between the US and Iran to restart negotiations and pave the way for broader regional talks, but the path to a deal remains fraught, a senior Qatari official said on Monday. "Any agreement right now is not going to be a final agreement, it's going to be an agreement to start negotiations," Qatari foreign ministry spokesman Majed al-Ansari said at the Concordia Summit in New York on Monday. Qatar, alongside with Pakistan, has played a leading role in attempting to broker a diplomatic resolution of the conflict between Iran and the US. "On both sides, there is an expectation that the other side will blink first," Al-Ansari said. The reopening of the strait of Hormuz and a viable ceasefire in the region are the requisite preconditions for the US-Iran dialogue, al-Ansari said. A lasting peace deal between the US and Iran needs to restore the pre-war status quo in the strait of Hormuz, he said. But Tehran has made it clear it seeks to retain a degree of control over Hormuz flows, possibly in collaboration with Oman and other neighboring states. Iranian president Massoud Pezeshkian and US president Donald Trump both are attending the UN General Assembly in New York this week, but so far, there is no meeting scheduled between the two leaders. Traffic through Hormuz remains at a fraction of pre-war levels. The US military has enabled the passage of oil tankers through the strait, despite non-stop Iranian attacks on vessels passing through that lane, which skirts the Omani coast. The US effort enabled exports of 1bn bl of crude and products in the past two months, the top US military commander in the Middle East, Admiral Brad Cooper, asserted on 19 September. The figure, amounting to roughly 16mn b/d, is far higher than what independent analysts estimate or what other US government officials previously have claimed. The US is set to convene a meeting with Mideast Gulf officials on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly on Tuesday. "There might be differences between the way we perceive Iran, but I think all of us in the region perceive the US in the same way, which is a strategic partner that we are working with," al-Ansari said. "Tomorrow's meeting will be toward that end." Diplomats from the Mideast Gulf countries, joined by Iraq, were set to meet with an Iranian delegation in Oman on 14 September to discuss regional issues, including shipping through the strait of Hormuz. But the meeting was cancelled at the last minute, a decision al-Ansari attributed to a drone attack that forced Saudi Aramco to shut down its 7mn b/d East-West pipeline. The Mideast Gulf countries are working to keep conflict resolution efforts on separate tracks for the Saudi-Houthi confrontation in Yemen and the broader war between the US and Iran, al-Ansari said. "If there's going to be a suspension of the Houthi attacks, if there's going to be a de-escalation on that front, it'll probably start with a de-escalation with the Iranians," Michael Ratney, the former US ambassador to Saudi Arabia, said last week. The planned meeting between Iran and its Mideast Gulf states likely got delayed because Iran's neighbors need to work out a common position "on a very, very contentious set of issues," Ratney said during a discussion hosted by Washington think tank the Arab Gulf States Institute. "But I think many of the Gulf states may well have given up on US diplomacy, resolving this war or ending it satisfactorily, and are turning to direct contacts with the Iranians themselves," Ratney said. By Charlotte Bawol and Haik Gugarats Send comments and request more information at feedback@argusmedia.com Copyright © 2026. Argus Media group . All rights reserved.
Jones Act waiver approvals slow, but data limited
Jones Act waiver approvals slow, but data limited
New York, 16 September (Argus) — US trade officials' implementation of a case-by-case review of Jones Act waiver requests since mid-August has cut in half the number of international vessels approved for domestic US shipping, according to sources, although a significant lag in waiver reports is obscuring the data. The more thorough review of requests for waivers from the law that limits US port-to-port shipping to US-built, -owned and -operated ships has led to only about half of all Jones Act waiver requests being approved since the revised process started, two industry sources familiar with the matter told Argus . This compares to a near-blanket approval extended previously to any shippers requesting the waiver since it first went into effect 17 March. US refiners, who have used the waivers extensively to move crude and products between domestic ports, are now seeing some denials because of the new requirement that they prove a Jones Act ship is not available, according to sources, but many are still getting approved. The US Maritime Administration (Marad) database where authorized Jones Act waiver movements are posted lists 255 voyages in total so far this year, including 30 posted since the start of the new review process on 17 August. But all of the voyages in the database as of 16 September loaded prior to the new process starting, meaning the tougher standards were likely not applied to them, denying the market of a clear picture. "We're all a little bit in the dark as far as an official loop closing" Jennifer Carpenter, president of the American Maritime Partnership, an industry coalition that represents domestic maritime interests, told Argus . "We know there have been approvals and denials, but we don't yet have visibility on which ones." Gauging how many waivers have been approved is also difficult due to a 10-day lag between when a ship granted the waiver offloads its cargo and when the waiver is reported by US officials, according to Aaron Smith, president of the Offshore Marine Service Association. In one example, oil major Chevron provisionally hired a Panama-flagged tanker, the Nave Perseus , to load high sulfur vacuum gasoil on 24 May for what should have been a less-than-two day voyage from El Segundo, California to San Francisco. But the vessel did not discharge the cargo at nearby Richmond, California, until 12 July, Vortexa data show. Yet the May loaded voyage is the second most-recent entry in Marad data because the projected discharge date provided was between 8 August and 2 September, putting its official report due date as 12 September. The case-by-case waiver process "is an improvement over a blanket waiver" according to Carpenter, but waivers can still discourage investments in US' domestic maritime revitalization efforts. "Nothing kills investment more than uncertainty and the current system seems designed to breed uncertainty for the domestic maritime industry," Smith said. By Charlotte Bawol and Eunice Bridges Send comments and request more information at feedback@argusmedia.com Copyright © 2026. Argus Media group . All rights reserved.
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