Two bitumen tankers carrying Mideast Gulf cargoes of the product are heading to Durban, South Africa, the first such shipments since the flows were halted when the US war with Iran began on 28 February.
The 6,649 deadweight tons (dwt) A3R H is scheduled to arrive at Durban on 30 May, while the 5,900dwt Y L W, which according to Vortexa was loaded at an Omani storage point, is due for 4 June arrival at the South African port. The tankers are understood by market participants to have been prevented by the US-Iran conflict and closure of the Hormuz strait from shipping their cargoes to international markets.
The last Mideast Gulf cargo shipments to South Africa on the A3H R and Y L W arrived at Durban around 20 February and the start of March respectively.
Bitumen cargoes loaded in the Mideast Gulf constituted close to one-fifth of South African bitumen cargo imports in both 2024 and 2025, competing strongly with eastern Mediterranean cargoes, especially Turkish volumes that accounted for just over half of South African imports last year, according to Kpler data.
The data showed South Africa imported 234,000t of bitumen in bulk tanker cargoes last year, up from 220,000t in 2024, as the country's last remaining bitumen-producing refinery, the 107,000 b/d Sasol-Prax joint venture Natref facility in Sasolburg, discontinued output of the heavy construction product last autumn.
South Africa has already imported 160,000t of bulk bitumen so far this year — 100,000t of it from Turkey — alongside packaged flows like drums and bitutainers. Some of that supply is ordinarily sourced from the Mideast Gulf, but has also been hit by war-related supply restrictions.
