Economy 5 min read By Callum Montgomery
Iran War Creates One-Day Millionaires as Tanker Rates Top $1m
Oil tankers willing to cross the Strait of Hormuz are earning more than $1m per day as the Iran war pushes shipping costs to record levels, with refineries and consumers bearing the cost.
Oil tankers prepared to navigate the Strait of Hormuz are now commanding more than $1m per day, as the Iran war drives freight rates to unprecedented levels and creates a new class of one-day millionaires in the shipping industry.
The cost for a very large crude carrier to haul oil from the Persian Gulf to China reached $1.035m per day this week, according to Baltic Exchange data, the first time the price tag has exceeded seven figures. Before the conflict, a similar vessel transiting from the Persian Gulf cost about $208,000 per day, per the Platts VLCC index.
The surge reflects a combination of escalating danger and urgent demand. Commercial traffic through the Strait of Hormuz has continued to dwindle in the war’s seventh month, yet the need to export oil from the Gulf remains acute as constrained supply pushes crude prices above $100 per barrel once again.
Ioannis Papadimitriou, principal freight analyst at Vortexa, told Fortune that the exorbitant shipping costs are a byproduct of both the dangers associated with crossing the chokepoint and the increased necessity for the commodity those ships carry. «It’s all about risk,» he said.
As attacks in the region escalate, commercial ships have remained targets of strikes, including two tankers hit by projectiles in the Strait of Hormuz on Friday, according to a UK navy agency. «One of the drivers is the geopolitical risk and the risk of the assets — which is the ship in this case — which is increasing because of the tit-for-tat attacks that we saw from the U.S. and the territory attacks from Iran on ships,» Papadimitriou said.
Beyond fewer freighters being interested in crossing the channel’s east side where disruptions are most severe, the danger has pushed insurance premiums for vessels to about 10% of the assets aboard, up from 0.5% to 1% before the war. Those premiums are passed down to charterers.
Increased demand has also encouraged market consolidation, limiting the number of players in the maritime shipping market and allowing growing firms to hike prices. «These players, especially around the Middle East, they are building out their fleets. They’re buying more vessels,» Papadimitriou said. «Why? Because they want to ensure deliveries of their cargos. They want to expand into the supply chain.»
The winners are the shipping companies able to charge these premiums, making the industry the biggest beneficiary of the Iran war so far. Shipbrokers such as Clarksons have already hinted at the scale of the opportunity. The world’s largest shipbroker notched record earnings last quarter, including a 55% year-over-year operating profit, which CEO Andi Case attributed to increased demand from the Iran war. Similarly, the Breakwave Tanker Shipping ETF (BWET), an oil freight fund, is up more than 3,600% year to date, Morningstar data shows, an indication of just how confident investors are in the profitability of shipping companies at this time.
«Every time there’s more geopolitical instability that creates trading inefficiencies, it’s the shipping players that actually benefit,» Papadimitriou said. «And this time is no different.»
The losers are refineries in particular, which must contend with increased shipping costs — or the increased time to receive shipments if tankers take alternative routes to bypass the Strait of Hormuz — as well as higher crude costs. Shrinking margins drive up costs for consumers, as already seen in diesel prices topping $6 for the first time, 60% higher than before the Iran war.
The broader 2026 economy has created a new throng of one-day millionaires, businesses raking in seven-figure sums in 24 hours or less. That includes teams at AI frontier labs like Anthropic, who are seeing monthly revenue top $500m from just a single client’s Claude spending, one consultancy reported — nearly $17m per day. But outside the AI boom, the Iran war has minted a new stock of near-instant daily millionaires in the oil tanker trade, where braving the Strait of Hormuz now comes with a seven-figure reward.
