Tankers New York-listed tanker owner DHT Holdings secured another high-paying long-term charter this week, fixing one of its oldest VLCCs at a rate above $100,000 per day. The Svein Moxnes Harfjeld-led company sealed a one-year charter deal for the 2011-built DHT Redwood at $105,000 per day as spot rates in the extremely hot sector push ever closer to $200,000 a day. One word helps to explain this extraordinary rally in VLCC fortunes witnessed over the past few months: Sinokor. One in four compliant VLCCs are now controlled by Ga-Hyun Chung-led Sinokor, according to analysis by Norwegian broker Fearnleys, following the Korean company’s dramatic supertanker raid in the S&P and charter markets since December. Fearnleys suggests Sinokor now controls about 25% of the compliant fleet, noting in a weekly report how this market domination has left charterers with very slim pickings for alternatives. This has translated into soaring asset prices as well as spot and time charter rates. “Sinokor’s aggressive fleet expansion has tightened available vessels supply and strengthened owners’ pricing power,” HSBC stated in a recent shipping report. The valuation for a 10-year-old VLCC has experienced a 24% annual increase, reaching its highest value in the last decade, according to data from Greek platform Signal. A notable feature of Sinokor’s recent acquisitions is the age profile of the vessels, with a large portion concentrated around 14 years, Signal noted in a new report. “This points to a strategy focused on the short- to medium-term outlook of the VLCC market, particularly in an environment shaped by sanctioned tonnage and tightening fundamentals,” Signal suggested. “There has never before been a single VLCC operator with such a dominant market share of the active fleet,” BRS stated in a recent report, describing the Korean owner as a “super operator” of VLCCs. BRS Dry Bulk It’s hard not to avoid the glare of the red hot VLCC sector in the opening two months of 2026, but investors ought to be taking notice of what a solid start dry bulk has enjoyed also, in what tends to be a fallow part of the year. Ursa Shipbrokers states that January was one of the strongest performances for the Baltic Dry Index over the past 40 years, up 91% over the same period last year. January loadings are estimated at 474.2m tonnes, the strongest January on record, up 8.8% year-on-year. Splash Extra analysis shows this momentum has extended into February with the BDI for January and February combined of 1,895 points highlighting how the dry bulk freight market has enjoyed its best start to the year since 2010 when the combined January-February average was 2,923 points. Compared with the same period in 2025, capesize 5TCs are running at circa140% higher, kamsarmax +70%, ultramax +44% and handysize +39%. That earnings resilience has translated directly into a sharp rerating of asset values – notably capesize secondhand prices that Xclusiv Shipbrokers says are at levels unseen since 2008. Buyers are competing fiercely for prompt eco‑vessels and 5-10 year tonnage; sellers are reluctant to part with modern units, tightening available supply. “The Year of the Horse opens with a credible cyclical upswing: iron ore and bauxite tonne‑mile growth, record agribulk crops and rising minor bulk volumes give the market a broad demand base,” states a dry bulk report in the upcoming Maritime CEO Annual Outlook, adding: “If restocking and Southern Hemisphere harvest flows persist, 2026